ALVMNVS  BOOK  FVND 


[See  p.  21 


'  ALL  THE  FELLOWS  CAME    ROUND   AND    ASKED 
HIM   WHAT   HE   WAS   GOING   TO   DO  NOW 


THE  FLIGHT 
OF  PONY  BAKER 

ft  ltap'0  Cofem 


By 

W.    D.    HO  WELLS 

AUTHOR  OF 

"  A  BOY'S  TOWN  " 
"CHRISTMAS  EVERY  DAY"  ETC. 

ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 
HARPER    £r    BROTHERS 


i)    AXD    A. 
iG  TO   DO  NC  Ct 


THE  FLIGHT 
OF  PONY  BAKER 


'0  (Foton 


W.    D.    HOWELLS 

AUTHOR  OF 

"A  BOY'S  TOWN" 
"CHRISTMAS  EVERY  DAY"  ETC. 


NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 
HARPER    &•    BROTHERS 


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HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS,  NEW  YORK 
Copyright,  1902,  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS. 


Published  .September,  7903. 

'        ' 


Contents 


CHAP.  PAGE 

I.  PONY'S  MOTHER,  AND  WHY  HE  HAD  A 

RIGHT  TO  RUN  OFF 3 

II.  THE  RIGHT  THAT  PONY  HAD  TO  RUN 

OFF,    FROM     THE     WAY     HIS     FA 
THER  ACTED 15 

III.  JIM   LEONARD'S  HAIR-BREADTH  ES 

CAPE    32 

IV.  THE  SCRAPE  THAT  JIM  LEONARD  GOT 

THE  BOYS  INTO 52 

V.  ABOUT   RUNNING   AWAY  TO  THE  IND 

IAN  RESERVATION  ON  A  CANAL- 
BOAT,  AND  HOW  THE  PLAN  FAILED       77 

VI.  How   THE    INDIANS    CAME   TO   THE 

BOY'S  TOWN  AND  JIM  LEONARD 

ACTED  THE  COWARD 89 

VII.  How    FRANK    BAKER    SPENT    THE 

FOURTH   AT   PAWPAW   BOTTOM, 

AND  SAW  THE  FOURTH  OF  JULY 

BOY 105 

VIII.  How    PONY   BAKER    CAME    PRETTY 

NEAR  RUNNING  OFF  WITH  A  ClR- 
CUS I4I 

iii 


393805 


Contents 


CHAP.  PAGE 

IX.  How  PONY  DID  NOT  QUITE  GET  OFF 

WITH   THE   CIRCUS 152 

X.  THE  ADVENTURES  THAT  PONY'S 

COUSIN,  FRANK   BAKER,  HAD 
WITH  A  POCKETFUL  OF  MONEY  .  165 

XI.  How  JIM  LEONARD  PLANNED  FOR 

PONY  BAKER  TO  RUN  OFF  ON  A 
RAFT 192 

XII.  How  JIM  LEONARD  BACKED  OUT, 

AND  PONY  HAD  TO  GIVE  IT  UP     208 


Illustrations 


"  AEE   THE    FELLOWS   CAME    ROUND 

AND  ASKED  HIM  WHAT  HE  WAS 

GOING  TO   DO  NOW  " Frontispiece 

"  BEING  DRESSED  SO  WELL  WAS  ONE 

OF    THE    WORST    THINGS    THAT 

WAS     DONE     TO      HIM     BY      HIS 

MOTHER  " Facing  p.        4 

"  '  I'LL  LEARN  THAT  LIMB  TO  SLEEP 

IN  A  COW-BARN  I'" "          5<> 

'  REAL  INDIANS,  IN  BLANKETS,  WITH 

BOWS  AND   ARROWS"      ....  "  90 

'    VERY  SMILING-  LOOKING "       ...  "        124 

"  HE  BEGAN  BEING  COLD  AND  STIFF 

WITH     HER     THE     VERY     NEXT 

MORNING  " "        144 

"  FRANK  BAKER  WAS  ONE  OF  THOSE 

FELLOWS  THAT  EVERY  MOTHER 

WOULD  FEEL  HER  BOY  WAS  SAFE 

WITH  "          "        166 

"  '  WHY,    YOU     AIN'T     AFRAID,    ARE 

YOU,   PONY?'" "204 

V 


The  Flight  of  Pony  Baker 


The  Flight  of  Pony  Baker 


PONY'S   MOTHER,   AND  WHY   HE  HAD  A 
RIGHT  TO  RUN  OFF 

IF  there  was  any  fellow  in  the  Boy's 
Town  fifty  years  ago  who  had  a  good 
reason  to  run  off  it  was  Pony  Baker.  Pony 
was  not  his  real  name ;  it  was  what  the  boys 
called  him,  because  there  were  so  many  fel 
lows  who  had  to  be  told  apart,  as  Big  Joe 
and  Little  Joe,  and  Big  John  and  Little 
John,  and  Big  Bill  and  Little  Bill,  that  they 
got  tired  of  telling  boys  apart  that  way; 
and  after  one  of  the  boys  called  him  Pony 
Baker,  so  that  you  could  know  him  from 
his  cousin  Frank  Baker,  nobody  ever  called 
him  anything  else. 

-     You  would  have  known  Pony  from  the 
3 


The   Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

other  Frank  Baker,  anyway,  if  you  had  seen 
them  together,  for  the  other  Frank  Baker 
was  a  tall,  lank,  tow-headed  boy,  with  a  face 
so  full  of  freckles  that  you  could  not  have 
put  a  pin-point  between  them,  and  large, 
bony  hands  that  came  a  long  way  out  of  his 
coat -sleeves;  and  the  Frank  Baker  that  I 
mean  here  was  little  and  dark  and  round, 
with  a  thick  crop  of  black  hair  on  his  nice 
head ;  and  he  had  black  eyes,  and  a  smooth, 
swarthy  face,  without  a  freckle  on  it.  He 
was  pretty  well  dressed  in  clothes  that  fitted 
him,  and  his  hands  were  small  and  plump. 
His  legs  were  rather  short,  and  he  walked 
and  ran  with  quick,  nipping  steps,  just  like 
a  pony;  and  you  would  have  thought  of  a 
pony  when  you  looked  at  him,  even  if  that 
had  not  been  his  nickname. 

That  very  thing  of  his  being  dressed  so 
well  was  one  of  the  worst  things  that  was 
done  to  him  by  his  mother,  who  was  always 
disgracing  him  before  the  other  boys,  though 
she  may  not  have  known  it.  She  never  was 
willing  to  have  him  go  barefoot,  and  if  she 
could  she  would  have  kept  his  shoes  on  him 
4 


"  BEING    DRESSED    SO    WELL    WAS    ONE    OF    THE 

WORST  THINGS  THAT  WAS  DONE  TO  HIM 

BY  HIS  MOTHER  " 


Pony's    Mother 


the  whole  summer;  as  it  was,  she  did  keep 
them  on  till  all  the  other  boys  had  been  bare 
foot  so  long  that  their  soles  were  as  hard 
as  horn;  and  they  could  walk  on  broken 
glass,  or  anything,  and  had  stumped  the 
nails  off  their  big  toes,  and  had  grass  cuts 
under  their  little  ones,  and  yarn  tied  into 
them,  before  Pony  Baker  was  allowed  to 
take  his  shoes  off  in  the  spring.  He  would 
have  taken  them  off  and  gone  barefoot  with 
out  his  mother's  knowing  it,  and  many  of 
the  boys  said  that  he  ought  to  do  it ;  but  then 
she  would  have  found  it  out  by  the  look  of 
his  feet  when  he  went  to  bed,  and  maybe 
told  his  father  about  it. 

Very  likely  his  father  would  not  have 
cared  so  much;  sometimes  he  would  ask 
Pony's  mother  why  she  did  not  turn  the  boy 
barefoot  with  the  other  boys,  and  then  she 
would  ask  Pony's  father  if  he  wanted  the 
child  to  take  his  death  of  cold;  and  that 
would  hush  him  up,  for  Pony  once  had  a 
little  brother  that  died. 

Pony  had  nothing  but  sisters,  after  that, 
and  this  was  another  thing  that  kept  him 
5 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Baker 

from  having  a  fair  chance  with  the  other 
fellows.  His  mother  wanted  him  to  play 
with  his  sisters,  and  she  did  not  care,  or  else 
she  did  not  know,  that  a  girl-boy  was  about 
the  meanest  thing  there  was,  and  that  if 
you  played  with  girls  you  could  not  help 
being  a  girl-boy.  Pony  liked  to  play  with 
his  sisters  well  enough  when  there  were  no 
boys  around,  but  when  there  were  his  mother 
did  not  act  as  if  she  could  not  see  any  dif 
ference.  The  girls  themselves  were  not  so 
bad,  and  they  often  coaxed  their  mother  to 
let  him  go  off  with  the  other  boys,  when  she 
would  not  have  let  him  without.  But  even 
then,  if  it  was  going  in  swimming,  or  fish 
ing,  or  skating  before  the  ice  was  very  thick, 
she  would  show  that  she  thought  he  was 
too  little  to  take  care  of  himself,  and  would 
make  some  big  boy  promise  that  he  would 
look  after  Pony ;  and  all  the  time  Pony  would 
be  gritting  his  teeth,  he  was  so  mad. 

Once,  when  Pony  stayed  in  swimming  all 

day  with  a  crowd  of  fellows,  she  did  about 

the  worst  thing  she  ever  did ;  she  came  down 

to  the  river-bank  and  stood  there,  and  called 

6 


Pony's    Mother 


to  the  boys,  to  find  out  if  Pony  was  with 
them ;  and  they  all  had  to  get  into  the  water 
up  to  their  necks  before  they  could  bear  to 
answer  her,  they  were  so  ashamed ;  and  Pony 
had  to  put  on  his  clothes  and  go  home  with 
her.  He  could  see  that  she  had  been  crying, 
and  that  made  him  a  little  sorry,  but  not  so 
very;  and  the  most  that  he  was  afraid  of 
was  that  she  would  tell  his  father.  But 
if  she  did  he  never  knew  it,  and  that  night 
she  came  to  him  after  he  went  to  bed,  and 
begged  him  so  not  to  stay  in  swimming  the 
whole  day  any  more,  and  told  him  how  fright 
ened  she  had  been,  that  he  had  to  promise ; 
and  then  that  made  him  feel  worse  than 
ever,  for  he  did  not  see  how  he  could  break 
his  promise. 

She  was  not  exactly  a  bad  mother,  and 
she  was  not  exactly  a  good  mother.  If  she 
had  been  really  a  good  mother  she  would 
have  let  him  do  whatever  he  wanted,  and 
never  made  any  trouble,  and  if  she  had  been 
a  bad  mother  she  would  not  have  let  him 
do  anything ;  arid  then  he  could  have  done  it 
without  her  letting  him.  In  some  ways  she 
7 


The   Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

was  good  enough;  she  would  let  him  take 
out  things  to  the  boys  in  the  back  yard  from 
the  table,  and  she  put  apple-butter  or  molasses 
on  when  it  was  hot  biscuit  that  he  took  out. 
Once  she  let  him  have  a  birthday  party,  and 
had  cake  and  candy-pulling  and  lemonade, 
and  nobody  but  boys,  because  he  said  that 
boys  hated  girls;  even  his  own  sisters  did 
not  come.  Sometimes  she  would  give  him 
money  for  ice-cream,  and  if  she  could  have 
got  over  being  particular  about  his  going  in 
swimming  before  he  could  swim,  and  pistols 
and  powder  and  such  things,  she  would  have 
done  very  well. 

She  was  first-rate  when  he  was  sick,  and 
nobody  could  take  care  of  him  like  her,  cool 
ing  his  pillow  and  making  the  bed  easy, 
and  keeping  everybody  quiet;  and  when  he 
began  to  get  well  she  would  cook  things 
that  tasted  better  than  anything  you  ever 
knew :  stewed  chicken,  and  toast  with  gravy 
on,  and  things  like  that.  Even  when  he 
was  well,  and  just  lonesome,  she  would  sit 
by  his  bed  if  he  asked  her,  till  he  went  to 
sleep,  or  got  quieted  down;  and  if  he  was 
8 


Pony's   Mother 


trying  to  make  anything  she  would  help 
him  all  she  could,  but  if  it  was  something 
that  you  had  to  use  a  knife  with  she  was  not 
much  help. 

It  always  seemed  to  Pony  that  she  be 
grudged  his  going  with  the  boys,  and  she 
said  how  nice  he  used  to  keep  his  clothes 
before,  and  had  such  pretty  manners,  and 
now  he  was  such  a  sloven,  and  was  so  rude 
and  fierce  that  she  was  almost  afraid  of  him. 
He  knew  that  she  was  making  fun  about 
being  afraid  of  him;  and  if  she  did  hate  to 
have  him  go  with  some  of  the  worst  boys, 
still  she  was  willing  to  help  in  lots  of  ways. 
She  gave  him  yarn  to  make  a  ball  with,  and 
she  covered  it  for  him  with  leather.  Some 
times  she  seemed  to  do  things  for  him  that 
she  would  not  do  for  his  sisters,  and  she 
often  made  them  give  up  to  him  when  they 
had  a  dispute. 

She  made  a  distinction  between  boys  and 
girls,  and  did  not  make  him  help  with  the 
housework.  Of  course  he  had  to  bring  in 
wood,  but  all  the  fellows  had  to  do  that,  and 
they  did  not  count  it;  what  they  hated  was 
9 


The   Flight   of  Pony   Baker 

having  to  churn,  or  wipe  dishes  after  com 
pany.  Pony's  mother  never  made  him  do 
anything  like  that;  she  said  it  was  girls' 
work;  and  she  would  not  let  him  learn  to 
milk,  either,  for  she  said  that  milking  was 
women's  work,  and  all  that  Pony  had  to 
do  with  the  cow  was  to  bring  her  home  from 
the  pasture  in  the  evening. 

Sometimes  when  there  was  company  she 
would  let  him  bring  in  a  boy  to  the  second 
table,  and  she  gave  them  all  the  preserves 
and  cake  that  they  could  eat.  The  kind  of 
company  she  had  was  what  nearly  all  the 
mothers  had  in  the  Boy's  Town ;  they  asked 
a  whole  lot  of  other  mothers  to  supper,  and 
had  stewed  chicken  and  hot  biscuit,  and  tea 
and  coffee,  and  quince  and  peach  preserves, 
and  sweet  tomato  pickles,  and  cake  with 
jelly  in  between,  and  pound-cake  with  frost 
ing  on,  and  buttered  toast,  and  maybe  fried 
eggs  and  ham.  The  fathers  never  seemed 
to  come;  or,  if  the  father  that  belonged  in 
the  house  came,  he  did  not  go  and  sit  in  the 
parlor  with  the  mothers  after  supper,  but 
went  up-town,  to  the  post-office,  or  to  some 
10 


Pony's    Mother 


of  the  lawyers'  offices,  or  else  a  store,  and 
talked  politics. 

Pony  never  thought  his  mother  was  good 
looking,  or,  rather,  he  did  not  think  anything 
about  that,  and  it  always  seemed  to  him  that 
she  must  be  a  pretty  old  woman;  but  once 
when  she  had  company,  and  she  came  in 
from  the  kitchen  with  the  last  dish,  and  put  it 
on  the  table,  one  of  the  nicest  of  the  other 
mothers  came  up,  and  put  her  arm  around 
Pony's  mother,  and  said: 

"How  pretty  you  do  look,  Mrs.  Baker! 
I  just  want  to  kiss  you  on  those  red  cheeks. 
I  should  say  you  were  a  girl,  instead  of  hav 
ing  all  those  children." 

Pony  was  standing  out  on  the  porch  with 
his  five  sisters,  and  when  he  looked  in  through 
the  door,  and  saw  his  mother  with  her  head 
thrown  back  laughing,  and  her  face  flushed 
from  standing  over  the  stove  to  cook  the 
supper,  and  her  brown  hair  tossed  a  little, 
he  did  think  that  she  was  very  nice  looking, 
and  like  the  girls  at  school  that  were  in  the 
fourth  reader ;  and  she  was  very  nicely  dress 
ed,  too,  in  a  white  muslin  dress,  with  the  blue 
II 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Baker 

check  apron  she  had  been  working  in  flung 
behind  the  kitchen  door,  as  she  came  into  the 
sitting-room  carrying  the  dish  in  one  hand. 
He  did  not  know  what  the  other  mother 
meant  by  saying  "all  those  children";  for 
it  was  a  small  family  for  the  Boy's  Town, 
and  he  thought  she  must  just  be  fooling. 

Sometimes  his  mother  would  romp  with  the 
children,  or  sing  them  funny,  old-fashioned 
songs,  such  as  people  used  to  sing  when  the 
country  was  first  settled  and  everybody  lived 
in  log  cabins.  When  she  got  into  one  of  her 
joking  times  she  would  call  Pony  "Honey! 
Honey!"  like  the  old  colored  aunty  that  had 
the  persimmon-tree  in  her  yard;  and  if  she 
had  to  go  past  him  she  would  wind  her  arm 
around  his  head  and  mumble  the  top  of  it 
with  her  lips ;  and  if  there  were  any  of  the 
fellows  there,  and  Pony  would  fling  her  arm 
away  because  he  hated  to  have  her  do  it  be 
fore  them,  she  would  just  laugh. 

Of  course,  if  she  had  been  a  good  mother 

about  everything  else  Pony  would  not  have 

minded  that,  but  she  was  such  a  very  bad 

mother  about  letting  him  have  fun,  some- 

12 


Pony's    Mother 


times,  that  Pony  could  not  overlook  it,  as 
he  might  have  done.  He  did  not  think  that 
she  ought  to  call  him  Pony  before  the  boys, 
for,  though  he  did  not  mind  the  boys'  calling 
him  Pony,  it  was  not  the  thing  for  a  fellow's 
mother,  and  it  was  sure  to  give  them  the 
notion  she  babied  him  at  home.  Once,  after 
she  called  him  "Pony,  dear!"  the  fellows 
mocked  her  when  they  got  away,  and  all  of 
them  called  him  "Pony,  dear!"  till  he  began 
to  cry  and  to  stone  them. 

But  the  worst  of  her  ways  was  about 
powder,  and  her  not  wanting  him  to  have  it, 
or  not  wanting  him  to  have  it  where  there 
was  fire.  She  would  never  let  him  come 
near  the  stove  with  it,  after  one  of  the  Tellows 
had  tried  to  dry  his  powder  on  the  stove  when 
it  had  got  wet  from  being  pumped  on  in  his 
jacket-pocket  while  he  was  drinking  at  the 
pump,  and  the  fellow  forgot  to  take  it  off  the 
stove  quick  enough,  and  it  almost  blew  his 
mother  up,  and  did  pretty  nearly  scare  her 
to  death ;  and  she  would  not  let  him  keep  it 
in  a  bottle,  or  anything,  but  just  loose  in  a 
paper,  because  another  of  the  fellows  had 
13 


The   Flight    of  Pony  Baker 

begun  to  pour  powder  once  from  a  bottle 
onto  a  coal  of  fire,  and  the  fire  ran  up  the 
powder,  and  blew  the  bottle  to  pieces,  and 
filled  the  fellow's  face  so  full  of  broken  glass 
that  the  doctor  was  nearly  the  whole  of  that 
Fourth  of  July  night  getting  it  out.  So, 
although  she  was  a  good  mother  in  some 
things,  she  was  a  bad  mother  in  others,  and 
these  were  the  great  things;  and  they  were 
what  gave  him  the  right  to  run  off. 


II 

THE    RIGHT   THAT    PONY    HAD   TO    RUN 

OFF,  FROM  THE  WAY  HIS  FATHER 

ACTED 


KNY  had  a  right  to  run  off  from  some 
J  the  things  that  his  father  had  done, 
but  it  seemed  to  him  that  they  were  mostly 
things  that  his  mother  had  put  his  father 
up  to,  and  that  his  father  would  not  have 
been  half  as  bad  if  he  had  been  let  alone. 
In  the  Boy's  Town  the  fellows  celebrated 
Christmas  just  as  they  did  Fourth  of  July,  by 
firing  off  pistols  and  shooting  crackers,  and 
one  Christmas  one  of  the  fellows'  pistols  burst 
and  blew  the  ball  of  his  thumb  open,  and 
when  a  crowd  of  the  fellows  helped  him  past 
Pony's  house,  crying  and  limping  (the  pain 
seemed  to  go  down  his  leg,  and  lame  him), 
Pony's  mother  made  his  father  take  Pony's 
pistol  right  away  from  him,  and  not  let  him 
15 


The   Flight    of  Pony  Baker 

have  it  till  after  New  Year's ;  and  what  made 
it  worse  was  that  Pony  had  faithfully  kept 
his  promise  to  her  that  he  would  not  fire 
anything  out  of  his  pistol  but  paper  wads, 
while  all  the  other  fellows  were  firing  shot, 
and  tacks,  and  little  marbles,  out  of  theirs ; 
and  some  of  them  tried  to  shame  him  into 
breaking  his  word,  and  he  had  to  stand  their 
calling  him  cry-baby,  and  everything. 

Then,  she  would  not  let  his  father  get 
him  a  gun  to  go  hunting  with,  because  he 
would  have  to  fire  something  besides  wads 
out  of  that,  and  would  be  sure  to  kill  himself. 
Pony  told  her  that  he  would  not  kill  himself, 
and  tried  to  laugh  her  out  of  the  notion,  but 
it  was  no  use,  and  he  never  had  a  gun  till 
he  was  twelve  years  old ;  he  was  nine  at  the 
time  I  mean.  One  of  the  fellows  who  was 
only  eight  was  going  to  have  a  gun  as  soon 
as  his  brother  got  done  with  his. 

She  would  hardly  let  his  father  get  him  a 
dog,  and  I  suppose  it  was  something  but 
Pony's  disappointment  about  the  gun  that 
made  her  agree  to  the  dog  at  last;  even  then 
she  would  not  agree  to  his  having  it  before  it 
16 


The  Right  Pony  Had  to  Run  Off 

had  its  eyes  open,  when  the  great  thing  about 
a  puppy  was  its  not  having  its  eyes  open,  and 
it  was  fully  two  weeks  old  before  he  was  al 
lowed  to  bring  it  home,  though  he  was  taken 
to  choose  it  before  it  could  walk  very  well, 
and  he  went  every  day  afterwards  to  see  how 
it  was  getting  along,  and  to  watch  out  that 
it  did  not  get  changed  with  the  other  little 
dogs.  The  first  night  after  he  got  it  to  his 
own  house,  the  dog  whined  so  with  home 
sickness  that  it  kept  everybody  awake  till 
Pony  went  to  the  woodshed,  where  it  was  in 
the  clothes-basket,  and  took  it  into  his  own 
bed ;  then  it  went  to  sleep,  and  did  not  whine 
a  bit.  His  father  let  him  keep  it  there  that 
one  night,  but  the  next  he  made  him  put  it 
out  again,  because  he  said  it  would  get  the 
house  full  of  fleas;  and  he  said  if  it  made 
much  more  trouble  he  would  make  Pony  take 
it  back. 

He  was  not  a  very  good  father  about 
money,  because  when  Pony  went  to  ask 
him  for  a  five-cent  piece  he  always  wanted 
to  know  what  it  was  for,  and  even  when  it 
was  for  a  good  thing  a  fellow  did  not  air 
17 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Baker 

ways  like  to  tell.  If  his  father  did  not  think 
it  was  a  good  thing  he  would  not  let  Pony 
have  it,  and  then  Pony  would  be  ashamed 
to  go  back  to  the  boys,  for  they  would  say 
his  father  was  stingy,  though  perhaps  none 
of  them  had  tried  to  get  money  from  their 
own  fathers. 

Every  now  and  then  the  fellows  tried  to 
learn  to  smoke,  and  that  was  a  thing  that 
Pony's  father  would  not  let  him  do.  He 
would  let  him  smoke  the  driftwood  twigs, 
which  the  boys  picked  up  along  the  river 
shore  and  called  smoke-wood,  or  he  would 
let  him  smoke  grapevine  or  the  pods  of  the 
catalpa,  which  were  just  like  cigars,  but  he 
was  mean  about  real  tobacco.  Once,  when 
he  found  a  cigar  in  Pony's  pocket,  he  threw 
it  into  the  fire,  and  said  that  if  he  ever  knew 
him  to  have  another  he  would  have  a  talk 
with  him. 

He  was  pretty  bad  about  wanting  Pony 
to  weed  his  mother's  flower-beds  and  about 
going  regularly  to  school,  and  always  getting 
up  in  time  for  school.  To  be  sure,  if  a  show 
or  a  circus  came  along,  he  nearly  always 
18 


The  Right  Pony  Had  to  Run  Off 

took  Pony  in,  but  then  he  was  apt  to  take  the 
girls,  too,  and  he  did  not  like  to  have  Pony 
go  off  with  a  crowd  of  boys,  which  was  the 
only  way  to  go  into  a  show ;  for  if  the  fellows 
saw  you  with  your  family,  all  dressed  up, 
and  maybe  with  your  shoes  on,  they  would 
make  fun  of  you  the  next  time  they  caught 
you  out. 

He  made  Pony  come  in  every  night  before 
nine  o'clock,  and  even  Christmas  Eve,  or  the 
night  before  Fourth  of  July,  he  would  not 
let  him  stay  up  the  whole  night.  When  he 
went  to  the  city,  as  the  boys  called  the  large 
town  twenty  miles  away  from  the  Boy's 
Town,  he  might  get  Pony  a  present  or  he 
might  not,  but  he  would  not  promise,  be 
cause  once  when  he  promised,  he  forgot  it, 
and  then  Pony's  mother  scolded  him. 

There  were  some  boys'  fathers  in  the  Boy's 
Town  who  were  good  fathers,  and  let  their 
children  do  whatever  they  pleased,  and  Pony 
could  not  help  feeling  rather  ashamed  before 
these  boys.  If  one  of  that  sort  of  fellows' 
fathers  passed  a  crowd  of  boys,  they  would 
not  take  any  notice  of  their  boys;  but  if 
19 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Baker 

Pony's  father  came  along,  he  would  very 
likely  say,  "Well,  Pony!"  or  something  like 
that,  and  then  all  the  fellows  would  hollo, 
"Well,  Pony!  Well,  Pony!"  and  make  fun 
of  his  father,  when  he  got  past,  and  walk  like 
him,  or  something,  so  that  Pony  would  be 
so  mad  he  would  hardly  know  what  to  do. 
He  hated  to  ask  his  father  not  to  speak  to 
him,  or  look  at  him,  when  he  was  with  the 
fellows,  but  it  seemed  to  him  as  if  his  father 
ought  to  know  better  without  asking. 

There  were  a  great  many  things  like  that 
which  no  good  father  would  have  done, 
but  the  thing  that  made  Pony  lose  all 
patience,  and  begin  getting  ready  to  run  off 
right  away,  was  the  way  his  father  behaved 
when  Pony  got  mad  at  the  teacher  one  day, 
and  brought  his  books  home,  and  said  he 
was  not  going  back  to  that  school  any  more. 
The  reason  was  because  the  teacher  had  put 
Pony  back  from  third  reader  to  the  second 
and  made  him  go  into  a  class  of  little  fellows 
not  more  than  seven  years  old.  It  happened 
one  morning,  after  a  day  when  Pony  had 
read  very  badly  in  the  afternoon,  and  though 
20 


The  Right  Pony  Had  to  Ran  Off 

he  had  explained  that  he  had  read  badly  be 
cause  the  weather  was  so  hot,  the  teacher 
said  he  might  try  it  in  the  second  reader  till 
the  weather  changed,  at  any  rate;  and  the 
whole  school  laughed.  The  worst  of  it  was 
that  Pony  was  really  a  very  good  reader,  and 
could  speak  almost  the  best  of  any  of  the 
boys;  but  that  afternoon  he  was  lazy,  and 
would  not  pay  attention. 

At  recess,  after  the  teacher  had  put  him 
back,  all  the  fellows  came  round  and  asked 
him  what  he  was  going  to  do  now;  and  he 
just  shut  his  teeth  and  told  them  they  would 
see;  and  at  noon  they  did  see.  As  soon  as 
school  was  dismissed,  or  even  before,  Pony 
put  all  his  books  together,  and  his  slate, 
and  tied  them  with  his  slate-pencil  string, 
and  twitched  his  hat  down  off  the  peg,  and 
strutted  proudly  out  of  the  room,  so  that  not 
only  the  boys  but  the  teacher,  too,  could  see 
that  he  was  leaving  school.  The  teacher 
looked  on  and  pretended  to  smile,  but  Pony 
did  not  smile;  he  kept  his  teeth  shut,  and 
walked  stiffly  through  the  door,  and  straight 
home,  without  speaking  to  any  one.  That 

21 


The    Flight    of  Pony   Baker 

was  the  way  to  do  when  you  left  school  in 
the  Boy's  Town,  for  then  the  boys  would 
know  you  were  in  earnest ;  and  none  of  them 
would  try  to  speak  to  you,  either ;  they  would 
respect  you  too  much. 

Pony's  mother  knew  that  he  had  left  school 
as  soon  as  she  saw  him  bringing  home  his 
books,  but  she  only  looked  sorry  and  did  not 
say  anything.  She  must  have  told  his  father 
about  it  when  he  came  to  dinner,  though, 
for  as  soon  as  they  sat  down  at  the  table  his 
father  began  to  ask  what  the  trouble  was. 
Pony  answered  very  haughtily,  and  said  that 
old  Archer  had  put  him  back  into  the  second 
reader,  and  he  was  not  going  to  stand  it,  and 
he  had  left  school. 

"Then,"  said  his  father,  "you  expect  to 
stay  in  the  second  reader  the  rest  of  your 
life?" 

This  was  something  that  Pony  had  never 
thought  of  before ;  but  he  said  he  did  not  care, 
and  he  was  not  going  to  have  old  Archer  put 
him  back,  anyway,  and  he  began  to  cry. 

It  was  then  that  his  mother  showed  herself 
a  good  mother,  if  ever  she  was  one,  and  said 
2,2 


The  Right  Pony  Had  to  Run  Off 

she  thought  it  was  a  shame  to  put  Pony  back 
and  mortify  him  before  the  other  boys,  and 
she  knew  that  it  must  just  have  happened 
that  he  did  not  read  very  well  that  afternoon 
because  he  was  sick,  or  something,  for  usu 
ally  he  read  perfectly. 

His  father  said,  "My  dear  girl,  my  dear 
girll"  and  his  mother  hushed  up  and  did  not 
say  anything  more ;  but  Pony  could  see  what 
she  thought,  and  he  accused  old  Archer  of 
always  putting  on  him  and  always  trying  to 
mortify  him. 

"That's  all  very  well,"  said  his  father. 
"  but  I  think  we  ought  to  give  him  one  more 
trial;  and  I  advise  you  to  take  your  books 
back  again  this  afternoon,  and  read  so  well 
that  he  will  put  you  into  the  fourth  reader 
to-morrow  morning/' 

Pony  understood  that  his  father  was  just 
making  fun  about  the  fourth  reader,  but  was 
in  earnest  about  his  going  back  to  school; 
and  he  left  the  table  and  threw  himself  on 
the  lounge,  with  his  face  down,  and  cried. 
He  said  he  was  sick,  and  his  head  ached,  and 
he  could  not  go  to  school;  his  father  said 
23 


The   Flight    of  Pony   Baker 

that  he  hoped  his  headache  would  wear  off 
in  the  course  of  the  afternoon,  but  if  he  was 
worse  they  would  have  the  doctor  when  he 
came  home  from  school. 

Then  he  took  his  hat  and  went  out  of  the 
front  door  to  go  up  town,  and  Pony  screamed 
out,  "Well,  I'll  run  off;  that's  what  I'll  do!" 

His  father  did  not  take  any  notice  of  him, 
and  his  mother  only  said,  "Pony,  Pony!" 
while  his  sisters  all  stood  round  frightened 
at  the  way  Pony  howled  and  thrashed  the 
lounge  with  his  legs. 

But  before  one  o'clock  Pony  washed  his 
face  and  brushed  his  hair,  and  took  his  books 
and  started  for  school.  His  mother  tried  to 
kiss  him,  but  he  pushed  her  off,  for  it  seemed 
to  him  that  she  might  have  made  his  father 
let  him  stay  out  of  school,  if  she  had  tried, 
and  he  was  not  going  to  have  any  of  her 
pretending.  He  made  his  face  very  cold  and 
hard  as  he  marched  out  of  the  house,  for  he 
never  meant  to  come  back  to  that  house  any 
more.  He  meant  to  go  to  school  that  after 
noon,  but  as  soon  as  school  was  out  he  was 
going  to  run  off. 

24 


The  Right  Pony  Had  to  Run  Off 

When  the  fellows  saw  him  coming  back 
with  his  books  they  knew  how  it  was,  but 
they  did  not  mock  him,  for  he  had  done 
everything  that  he  could,  and  all  that  was 
expected  of  anybody  in  such  a  case.  A 
boy  always  came  back  when  he  had  left 
school  in  that  way,  and  nobody  supposed 
but  what  he  would ;  the  thing  was  to  leave 
school;  after  that  you  were  not  to  blame, 
whatever  happened. 

Before  recess  it  began  to  be  known  among 
them  that  Pony  wras  going  to  run  off,  be 
cause  his  father  had  made  him  come  back, 
and  then  they  did  think  he  was  somebody; 
and  as  soon  as  they  got  out  at  recess  they  all 
crowded  round  him  and  began  to  praise 
him  up,  and  everything,  and  to  tell  him 
that  they  would  run  off,  too,  if  their  fathers 
sent  them  back;  and  so  he  began  to  be  glad 
that  he  was  going  to  do  it.  They  asked 
him  when  he  was  going  to  run  off,  and  he 
told  them  they  would  see ;  and  pretty  soon  it 
was  understood  that  he  was  going  to  run 
off  the  same  night. 

When  school  was  out  a  whole  crowd  of 
25 


The   Flight   of  Pony   Baker 

them  started  with  him,  and  some  of  the 
biggest  fellows  walked  alongside  of  him, 
and  talked  down  over  their  shoulders  to  him, 
and  told  him  what  he  must  do.  They  said 
he  must  not  start  till  after  dark,  and  he 
must  watch  out  for  the  constable  till  he  got 
over  the  corporation  line  and  then  nobody 
could  touch  him.  They  said  that  they 
would  be  waiting  round  the  corner  for  him 
as  soon  as  they  had  their  suppers,  and  one 
of  them  would  walk  along  with  him  to  the 
end  of  the  first  street  and  then  another  would 
be  waiting  there  to  go  with  him  to  the  end 
of  the  next,  and  so  on  till  they  reached  the 
corporation  line.  Very  likely  his  father 
would  have  the  constable  waiting  there  to 
stop  him,  but  Pony  ought  to  start  to  run 
across  the  line  and  then  the  fellows  would 
rush  out  and  trip  up  the  constable  and  hold 
him  down  till  Pony  got  safe  across.  He 
ought  to  hollo,  when  he  was  across,  and 
that  would  let  them  know  that  he  was  safe 
and  they  would  be  ready  to  let  the  constable 
up,  and  begin  to  run  before  he  could  grab 

them. 

26 


The  Right  Pony  Had  to  Run  Off 

Everybody  thought  that  was  a  splendid 
plan  except  Archy  Hawkins,  that  all  the 
fellows  called  Old  Hawkins ;  his  father  kept 
one  of  the  hotels,  and  Old  Hawkins  used  to 
catch  frogs  for  the  table;  he  was  the  one 
that  the  frogs  used  to  know  by  sight,  and 
when  they  saw  him  they  would  croak  out: 
"Here  comes  Hawkins!  Here  comes  Haw 
kins!  Look  out!"  and  jump  off  the  bank 
into  the  water  and  then  come  up  among 
the  green  slime,  where  nobody  but  Old  Haw 
kins  could  see  them.  He  was  always  jok 
ing  and  getting  into  scrapes,  but  still  the 
boys  liked  him  and  thought  he  was  pretty 
smart,  and  now  they  did  not  mind  it  when 
he  elbowed  the  big  boys  away  that  were 
talking  to  Pony  and  told  them  to  shut  up. 

"You  just  listen  to  your  uncle,  Pony!" 
he  said.  "These  fellows  don't  know  any 
thing  about  running  off.  Fll  tell  you  how 
to  do  it;  you  mind  your  uncle!  It's  no  use 
trying  to  get  away  from  the  constable,  if 
he's  there,  for  he'll  catch  you  as  quick  as 
lightning,  and  he  won't  mind  these  fellows 
any  more  than  fleas.  You  oughtn't  try  to 
27 


The   Flight   of  Pony   Baker 

start  till  along  about  midnight,  for  the  con 
stable  will  be  in  bed  by  that  time,  and  you 
won't  have  any  trouble.  You  must  have 
somebody  to  wake  you  up,  and  some  of  the 
fellows  ought  to  be  outside,  to  do  it.  You 
listen  to  your  grandfather!  You  ought  to 
tie  a  string  around  your  big  toe,  and  let  the 
string  hang  out  of  the  window,  the  way  you 
do  Fourth  of  July  eve;  and  then  just  as  soon 
as  it  strikes  twelve,  the  fellows  ought  to  tug 
away  at  the  string  till  you  come  hopping 
to  the  window,  and  tell  'em  to  stop.  But 
you  got  to  whisper,  and  the  fellows  mustn't 
make  any  noise,  either,  or  your  father  will 
be  out  on  them  in  a  minute.  He'll  be  watch 
ing  out,  to  -  night,  anyway,  I  reckon,  be 
cause — " 

Old  Hawkins  was  walking  backward  in 
front  of  Pony,  talking  to  him,  and  showing 
him  how  he  must  hop  to  the  window,  and  all 
at  once  he  struck  his  heel  against  a  root  in 
the  sidewalk,  and  the  first  thing  he  knew 
he  sat  down  so  hard  that  it  about  knocked 
the  breath  out  of  him. 

All  the  fellows  laughed,  and  anybody  else 
28 


The  Right  Pony  Had  to  Run  Off 

would  have  been  mad,  but  Old  Hawkins 
was  too  good-natured;  and  he  got  up  and 
brushed  himself,  and  said:  "Say!  let's  go 
down  to  the  river  and  go  in,  before  supper, 
anyway. " 

Nearly  all  the  fellows  agreed,  and  Old 
Hawkins  said:  "Come  along,  Pony!  You 
got  to  come,  too!" 

But  Pony  stiffly  refused,  partly  because  it 
seemed  to  him  pretty  mean  to  forget  all 
about  his  running  away,  like  that,  and 
partly  because  he  had  to  ask  his  mother 
before  he  went  in  swimming.  A  few  of  the 
little  fellows  kept  with  him  all  the  way  home, 
but  most  of  the  big  boys  went  along  with 
Old  Hawkins. 

One  of  them  stayed  with  Pony  and  the 
little  boys,  and  comforted  him  for  the  way 
the  rest  had  left  him.  He  was  a  fellow  who 
was  always  telling  about  Indians,  and  he 
said  that  if  Pony  could  get  to  the  Indians, 
anywhere,  and  they  took  a  fancy  to  him, 
they  would  adopt  him  into  their  tribe,  if  it 
was  just  after  some  old  chief  had  lost  a  son 
in  battle.  Maybe  they  would  offer  to  kill 
29 


The   Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

him  first,  and  they  would  have  to  hold  a 
council,  but  if  they  did  adopt  him,  it  would 
be  the  best  thing,  because  then  he  would 
soon  turn  into  an  Indian  himself,  and  for 
get  how  to  speak  English;  and  if  ever  the 
Indians  had  to  give  up  their  prisoners,  and 
he  was  brought  back,  and  his  father  and 
mother  came  to  pick  him  out,  they  might 
know  him  by  some  mark  or  other,  but  he 
would  not  know  them,  and  they  would  have 
to  let  him  go  back  to  the  Indians  again.  He 
said  that  was  the  very  best  way,  and  the 
only  way,  but  the  trouble  would  be  to  get  to 
the  Indians  in  the  first  place.  He  said  he 
knew  of  one  reservation  in  the  north  part  of 
the  State,  and  he  promised  to  find  out  if 
there  were  any  other  Indians  living  nearer; 
the  reservation  was  about  a  hundred  miles 
off,  and  it  would  take  Pony  a  good  while 
to  go  to  them. 

The  name  of  this  boy  was  Jim  Leonard. 
But  now,  before  I  go  the  least  bit  further 
with  the  story  of  Pony  Baker's  running 
away,  I  have  got  to  tell  about  Jim  Leonard, 
and  what  kind  of  boy  he  was,  and  the  scrape 
30 


The  Right  Pony  Had  to  Run  Off 

that  he  once  got  Pony  and  the  other  boys 
into,  and  a  hair-breadth  escape  he  had  him 
self,  when  he  came  pretty  near  being  drowned 
in  a  freshet;  and  I  will  begin  with  the  hair 
breadth  escape,  because  it  happened  before 
the  scrape. 


Ill 

JIM  LEONARD'S   HAIR-BREADTH   ESCAPE 

JIM  LEONARD'S  stable  used  to  stand  on 
the  flat  near  the  river,  and  on  a  rise  of 
ground  above  it  stood  Jim  Leonard's  log- 
cabin.  The  boys  called  it  Jim  Leonard's 
log -cabin,  but  it  was  really  his  mother's, 
and  the  stable  was  hers,  too.  It  was  a  log 
stable,  but  up  where  the  gable  began  the 
logs  stopped,  and  it  was  weather-boarded  the 
rest  of  the  way,  and  the  roof  was  shingled. 

Jim  Leonard  said  it  was  all  logs  once, 
and  that  the  roof  was  loose  clap-boards,  held 
down  by  logs  that  ran  across  them,  like  the 
roofs  in  the  early  times,  before  there  were 
shingles  or  nails,  or  anything,  in  the  coun 
try.  But  none  of  the  oldest  boys  had  ever 
seen  it  like  that,  and  you  had  to  take  Jim 
Leonard's  word  for  it  if  you  wanted  to  be- 
32 


Jim  Leonard's  Hair-breadth  Escape 

lieve  it.  The  little  fellows  nearly  all  did ;  but 
everybody  said  afterwards  it  was  a  good 
thing  for  Jim  Leonard  that  it  was  not  that 
kind  of  roof  when  he  had  his  hair-breadth 
escape  on  it.  He  said  himself  that  he  would 
not  have  cared  if  it  had  been;  but  that  was 
when  it  was  all  over,  and  his  mother  had 
whipped  him,  and  everything,  and  he  was 
telling  the  boys  about  it. 

He  said  that  in  his  Pirate  Book  lots  of 
fellows  on  rafts  got  to  land  when  they  were 
shipwrecked,  and  that  the  old-fashioned 
roof  would  have  been  just  like  a  raft,  any 
way,  and  he  could  have  steered  it  right 
across  the  river  to  Delorac's  Island  as  easy! 
Pony  Baker  thought  very  likely  he  could, 
but  Hen  Billard  said: 

"Well,  why  didn't  you  do  it,  with  the 
kind  of  a  roof  you  had?" 

Some  of  the  boys  mocked  Jim  Leonard ;  but 
a  good  many  of  them  thought  he  could  have 
done  it  if  he  could  have  got  into  the  eddy  that 
there  was  over  by  the  island.  If  he  could 
have  landed  there,  once,  he  could  have 
camped  out  and  lived  on  fish  till  the  river  feR. 
»  33 


The   Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

It  was  that  spring,  about  fifty-four  years 
ago,  when  the  freshet,  which  always  came 
in  the  spring,  was  the  worst  that  anybody 
could  remember.  The  country  above  the 
Boy's  Town  was  under  water,  for  miles  and 
miles.  The  river  bottoms  were  flooded  so 
that  the  corn  had  to  be  all  planted  over  again 
when  the  water  went  down.  The  freshet 
tore  away  pieces  of  orchard,  and  apple-trees 
in  bloom  came  sailing  along  with  logs  and 
fence  rails  and  chicken-coops,  and  pretty 
soon  dead  cows  and  horses.  There  was  a 
dog  chained  to  a  dog-kennel  that  went  by, 
howling  awfully;  the  boys  would  have 
given  anything  if  they  could  have  saved 
him,  but  the  yellow  river  whirled  him  out  of 
sight  behind  the  middle  pier  of  the  bridge, 
which  everybody  was  watching  from  the 
bank,  expecting  it  to  go  any  minute.  The 
water  was  up  within  four  or  five  feet  of  the 
bridge,  and  the  boys  believed  that  if  a  good 
big  log  had  come  along  and  hit  it,  the  bridge 
would  have  been  knocked  loose  from  its 
piers  and  carried  down  the  river. 

Perhaps  it  would,  and  perhaps  it  would 
34 


Jim  Leonard's  Hair-breadth  Escape 

not.  The  boys  all  ran  to  watch  it  as  soon 
as  school  was  out,  and  stayed  till  they  had 
to  go  to  supper.  After  supper  some  of  their 
mothers  let  them  come  back  and  stay  till 
bedtime,  if  they  would  promise  to  keep  a 
full  yard  back  from  the  edge  of  the  bank. 
They  could  not  be  sure  just  how  much  a 
yard  was,  and  they  nearly  all  sat  down  on 
the  edge  and  let  their  legs  hang  over. 

Jim  Leonard  was  there,  holloing  and  run 
ning  up  and  down  the  bank,  and  showing 
the  other  boys  things  away  out  in  the  river 
that  nobody  else  could  see ;  he  said  he  saw  a 
man  out  there.  He  had  not  been  to  supper, 
and  he  had  not  been  to  school  all  day,  which 
might  have  been  the  reason  why  he  would 
rather  stay  with  the  men  and  watch  the 
bridge  than  go  home  to  supper;  his  mother 
would  have  been  waiting  for  him  with  a 
sucker  from  the  pear-tree.  He  told  the  boys 
that  while  they  were  gone  he  went  out  with 
one  of  the  men  on  the  bridge  as  far  as  the 
middle  pier,  and  it  shook  like  a  leaf;  he 
showed  with  his  hand  how  it  shook. 

Jim  Leonard  was  a  fellow  who  believed  he 
35 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Baker 

did  all  kinds  of  things  that  he  would  like  to 
have  done;  and  the  big  boys  just  laughed. 
That  made  Jim  Leonard  mad,  and  he  said 
that  as  soon  as  the  bridge  began  to  go,  he 
was  going  to  run  out  on  it  and  go  with  it; 
and  then  they  would  see  whether  he  was  a 
liar  or  not!  They  mocked  him  and  danced 
round  him  till  he  cried.  But  Pony  Baker, 
who  had  come  with  his  father,  believed  that 
Jim  Leonard  would  really  have  done  it; 
and  at  any  rate,  he  felt  sorry  for  him  when 
Jim  cried. 

He  stayed  later  than  any  of  the  little  fel 
lows,  because  his  father  was  with  him,  and 
even  all  the  big  boys  had  gone  home  except 
Hen  Billard,  when  Pony  left  Jim  Leonard 
on  the  bank  and  stumbled  sleepily  away, 
with  his  hand  in  his  father's. 

When  Pony  was  gone,  Hen  Billard  said: 
"Well,  going  to  stay  all  night,  Jim?" 

And  Jim  Leonard  answered  back,  as  cross 
as  could  be,  "Yes,  I  ami"  And  he  said  the 
men  who  were  sitting  up  to  watch  the  bridge 
were  going  to  give  him  some  of  their  coffee, 
and  that  would  keep  him  awake.  But  per- 

36 


Jim  Leonard's  Hair-breadth  Escape 

haps  he  thought  this  because  he  wanted 
some  coffee  so  badly.  He  was  awfully  hun 
gry,  for  he  had  not  had  anything  since 
breakfast,  except  a  piece  of  bread-and-butter 
that  he  got  Pony  Baker  to  bring  him  in  his 
pocket  when  he  came  down  from  school  at 
noontime. 

Hen  Billard  said,  "Well,  I  suppose  I  won't 
see  you  any  more,  Jim;  good-bye,"  and  went 
away  laughing;  and  after  a  while  one  of  the 
men  saw  Jim  Leonard  hanging  about,  and 
asked  him  what  he  wanted  there,  at  that 
time  of  night;  and  Jim  could  not  say  he 
wanted  coffee,  and  so  there  was  nothing  for 
him  to  do  but  go.  There  was  nowhere  for 
him  to  go  but  home,  and  he  sneaked  off  in 
the  dark. 

When  he  came  in  sight  of  the  cabin  he 
could  not  tell  whether  he  would  rather  have 
his  mother  waiting  for  him  with  a  whipping 
and  some  supper,  or  get  to  bed  somehow 
with  neither.  He  climbed  softly  over  the 
back  fence  and  crept  up  to  the  back  door, 
but  it  was  fast;  then  he  crept  round  to  the 
front  door,  and  that  wds  fast,  too.  There 

37 


The   Flight   of  Pony   Baker 

was  no  light  in  the  house,  and  it  was  per 
fectly  still. 

All  of  a  sudden  it  struck  him  that  he  could 
sleep  in  the  stable-loft,  and  he  thought  what 
a  fool  he  was  not  to  have  thought  of  it  before. 
The  notion  brightened  him  up  so  that  he 
got  the  gourd  that  hung  beside  the  well- 
curb  and  took  it  out  to  the  stable  with  him; 
for  now  he  remembered  that  the  cow  would 
be  there,  unless  she  was  in  somebody's 
garden-patch  or  cornfield. 

He  noticed  as  he  walked  down  towards 
the  stable  that  the  freshet  had  come  up  over 
the  flat,  and  just  before  the  door  he  had  to 
wade.  But  he  was  in  his  bare  feet  and  he 
did  not  care;  if  he  thought  anything,  he 
thought  that  his  mother  would  not  come  out 
to  milk  till  the  water  went  down,  and  he 
would  be  safe  till  then  from  the  whipping 
he  must  take,  sooner  or  later,  for  playing 
hooky. 

Sure  enough,  the  old  cow  was  in  the  sta 
ble,  and  she  gave  Jim  Leonard  a  snort  of 
welcome  and  then  lowed  anxiously.  He 
fumbled  through  the  dark  to  her  side,  and 

38 


Jim  Leonard's  Hair-breadth  Escape 

began  to  milk  her.  She  had  been  milked 
only  a  few  hours  before,  and  so  he  got  only 
a  gourdful  from  her.  But  it  was  all  strip- 
pings,  and  rich  as  cream,  and  it  was  smok 
ing  warm.  It  seemed  to  Jim  Leonard  that 
it  went  down  to  his  very  toes  when  he  poured 
it  into  his  throat,  and  it  made  him  feel  so 
good  that  he  did  not  know  what  to  do. 

There  really  was  not  anything  for  him  to 
do  but  to  climb  up  into  the  loft  by  the  ladder 
in  the  corner  of  the  stable,  and  lie  down  on 
the  old  last  year's  fodder.  The  rich,  warm 
milk  made  Jim  Leonard  awfully  sleepy,  and 
he  dropped  off  almost  as  soon  as  his  head 
touched  the  corn-stalks.  The  last  thing  he 
remembered  was  the  hoarse  roar  of  the  fresh 
et  outside,  and  that  was  a  lulling  music  in 
his  ears. 

The  next  thing  he  knew,  and  he  hardly 
knew  that,  was  a  soft,  jdlting,  sinking  mo 
tion,  first  to  one  side  and  then  to  another; 
then  he  seemed  to  be  going  down,  down, 
straight  down,  and  then  to  be  drifting  off 
into  space.  He  rubbed  his  eyes,  and  found 
it  was  full  daylight,  although  it  was  the 

39 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Baker 

daylight  of  early  morning;  and  while  he 
lay  looking  out  of  the  stable-loft  window 
and  trying  to  make  out  what  it  all  meant, 
he  felt  a  wash  of  cold  water  along  his  back, 
and  his  bed  of  fodder  melted  away  under 
him  and  around  him,  and  some  loose  planks 
of  the  loft  floor  swam  weltering  out  of  the 
window.  Then  he  knew  what  had  hap 
pened.  The  flood  had  stolen  up  while  he 
slept,  and  sapped  the  walls  of  the  stable; 
the  logs  had  given  way,  one  after  another, 
and  had  let  him  down,  with  the  roof,  into 
the  water. 

He  got  to  his  feet  as  well  as  he  could,  and 
floundered  over  the  rising  and  falling  boards 
to  the  window  in  the  floating  gable.  One 
look  outside  showed  him  his  mother's  log- 
cabin  safe  on  its  rise  of  ground,  and  at  the 
corner  the  old  cow,  that  must  have  escaped 
through  the  stable  door  he  had  left  open, 
and  passed  the  night  among  the  cabbages. 
She  seemed  to  catch  sight  of  Jim  Leonard 
when  he  put  his  head  out,  and  she  lowed  to 
him. 

Jim  Leonard  did  not  stop  to  make  any 
40 


Jim  Leonard's  Hair-breadth  Escape 

answer.  He  clambered  out  of  the  window 
and  up  onto  the  ridge  of  the  roof,  and  there, 
in  the  company  of  a  large  gray  rat,  he  set 
out  on  the  strangest  voyage  a  boy  ever  made. 
In  a  few  moments  the  current  swept  him 
out  into  the  middle  of  the  river,  and  he  was 
sailing  down  between  his  native  shore  on 
one  side  and  Delorac's  Island  on  the  other. 
All  round  him  seethed  and  swirled  the 
yellow  flood  in  eddies  and  ripples,  where 
drift  of  all  sorts  danced  and  raced.  His 
vessel,  such  as  it  was,  seemed  seaworthy 
enough.  It  held  securely  together,  fitting 
like  a  low,  wide  cup  over  the  water,  and 
perhaps  finding  some  buoyancy  from  the 
air  imprisoned  in  it  above  the  window.  But 
Jim  Leonard  was  not  satisfied,  and  so  far 
from  being  proud  of  his  adventure,  he  was 
frightened  worse  even  than  the  rat  which 
shared  it.  As  soon  as  he  could  get  his  voice, 
he  began  to  shout  for  help  to  the  houses  on 
the  empty  shores,  which  seemed  to  fly  back 
ward  on  both  sides  while  he  lay  still  on  the 
gulf  that  swashed  around  him,  and  tried  to 
drown  his  voice  before  it  swallowed  him  up. 
41 


The  Flight   of  Pony   Baker 

At  the  same  time  the  bridge,  which  had 
looked  so  far  off  when  he  first  saw  it,  was 
rushing  swiftly  towards  him,  and  getting 
nearer  and  nearer. 

He  wondered  what  had  become  of  all  the 
people  and  all  the  boys.  He  thought  that 
if  he  were  safe  there  on  shore  he  should  not 
be  sleeping  in  bed  while  somebody  was  out 
in  the  river  on  a  roof,  with  nothing  but  a 
rat  to  care  whether  he  got  drowned  or  not. 

Where  was  Hen  Billard,  that  always 
made  fun  so;  or  Archy  Hawkins,  that 
pretended  to  be  so  good-natured;  or  Pony 
Baker,  that  seemed  to  like  a  fellow  so  much? 
He  began  to  call  for  them  by  name:  "Hen 
Billard— O  Hen!  Help,  help!  Archy  Haw 
kins,  O  Archy !  I'm  drowning !  Pony,  Pony, 
O  Pony!  Don't  you  see  me,  Pony?" 

He  could  see  the  top  of  Pony  Baker's 
house,  and  he  thought  what  a  good,  kind 
man  Pony's  father  was.  Surely  he  would 
try  to  save  him;  and  Jim  Leonard  began 
to  yell:  "0  Mr.  Baker!  Look  here,  Mr. 
Baker!  It's  Jim  Leonard,  and  I'm  floating 
down  the  river  on  a  roof!  Save  me,  Mr. 

42 


Jim  Leonard's  Hair-breadth  Escape 

Baker,   save   me!    Help,   help,   somebody  I 
Fire!    Fire!    Fire!    Murder!    Fire!" 

By  this  time  he  was  about  crazy,  and  did 
not  half  know  what  he  was  saying.  Just  in 
front  of  where  Hen  Billard's  grandmother 
lived,  on  the  street  that  ran  along  the  top  of 
the  bank,  the  roof  got  caught  in  the  branches 
of  a  tree  which  had  drifted  down  and  stuck 
in  the  bottom  of  the  river  so  that  the  branches 
waved  up  and  down  as  the  current  swashed 
through  them.  Jim  Leonard  was  glad  of 
anything  that  would  stop  the  roof,  and  at 
first  he  thought  he  would  get  off  on  the  tree. 
That  was  what  the  rat  did.  Perhaps  the 
rat  thought  Jim  Leonard  really  was  crazy 
and  he  had  better  let  him  have  the  roof  to 
himself;  but  the  rat  saw  that  he  had  made  a 
mistake,  and  he  jumped  back  again  after  he 
had  swung  up  and  down  on  a  limb  two  or 
three  times.  Jim  Leonard  felt  awfully  when 
the  rat  first  got  into  the  tree,  for  he  remem 
bered  how  it  said  in  the  Pirate  Book  that 
rats  always  leave  a  sinking  ship,  and  now 
he  believed  that  he  certainly  was  gone.  But 
that  only  made  him  hollo  the  louder,  and  he 
43 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Baker 

holloed  so  loud  that  at  last  he  made  some 
body  hear. 

It  was  Hen  Billard 's  grandmother,  and 
she  put  her  head  out  of  the  window  with  her 
night-cap  on,  to  see  what  the  matter  was. 
Jim  Leonard  caught  sight  of  her  and  he 
screamed,  "Fire,  fire,  fire!  I'm  drownding, 
Mrs.  Billard!  Oh,  do  somebody  come!" 

Hen  Billard 's  grandmother  just  gave  one 
yell  of  "Fire!  The  world's  a-burnin'  up, 
Hen  Billard,  and  you  layin'  there  sleepin' 
and  not  helpin'  a  bit!  Somebody's  out 
there  in  the  river!"  and  she  rushed  into  the 
room  where  Hen  was,  and  shook  him. 

He  bounced  out  of  bed  and  pulled  on  his 
pantaloons,  and  was  down-stairs  in  a  min 
ute.  He  ran  bareheaded  over  to  the  bank, 
and  when  Jim  Leonard  saw  him  coming  he 
holloed  ten  times  as  loud:  "It's  me,  Hen! 
It's  Jim  Leonard!  Oh,  do  get  somebody  to 
come  out  and  save  me!  Fire!" 

As  soon  as  Hen  heard  that,  and  felt  sure 

it  was  not  a  dream,  which  he  did  in  about 

half  a  second,  he  began  to  yell,  too,  and  to 

say:  "How  did  you  get  there?    Fire,  fire, 

44 


Jim  Leonard's  Hair-breadth  Escape 

fire!  What  are  you  on?  Fire!  Are  you 
in  a  tree,  or  what?  Fire,  fire!  Are  you  in  a 
flat-boat?  Fire,  fire,  fire!  If  I  had  a  skiff 
—fire!" 

He  kept  racing  up  and  down  the  bank,  and 
back  and  forth  between  the  bank  and  the 
houses.  The  river  was  almost  up  to  the 
top  of  the  bank,  and  it  looked  a  mile  wide. 
Down  at  the  bridge  you  could  hardly  see 
any  light  between  the  water  and  the  bridge. 

Pretty  soon  people  began  to  look  out  of 
their  doors  and  windows,  and  Hen  Billard's 
grandmother  kept  screaming,  "The  world's 
a-burnin'  up!  The  river's  on  fire!"  Then 
boys  came  out  of  their  houses;  and  then 
men  with  no  hats  on;  and  then  women  and 
girls,  with  their  hair  half  down.  The  fire- 
bells  began  to  ring,  and  in  less  than  five 
minutes  both  the  fire  companies  were  on  the 
shore,  with  the  men  at  the  brakes  and  the 
foremen  of  the  companies  holloing  through 
their  trumpets. 

Then  Jim  Leonard  saw  what  a  good  thing 
it  was  that  he  had  thought  of  holloing  fire. 
He  felt  sure  now  that  they  would  save  him 
45 


The   Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

somehow,  and  he  made  up  his  mind  to  save 
the  rat,  too,  and  pet  it,  and  maybe  go  around 
and  exhibit  it.  He  would  name  it  Bolivar; 
it  was  just  the  color  of  the  elephant  Bolivar 
that  came  to  the  Boy's  Town  every  year. 
These  things  whirled  through  his  brain 
while  he  watched  two  men  setting  out  in  a 
skiff  towards  him. 

They  started  from  the  shore  a  little  above 
him,  and  they  meant  to  row  slanting  across 
to  his  tree,  but  the  current,  when  they  got 
fairly  into  it,  swept  them  far  below,  and 
they  were  glad  to  row  back  to  land  again 
without  ever  getting  anywhere  near  him. 
At  the  same  time,  the  tree-top  where  his  roof 
was  caught  was  pulled  southward  by  a  sud 
den  rush  of  the  torrent;  it  opened,  and  the 
roof  slipped  out,  with  Jim  Leonard  and  the 
rat  on  it.  They  both  joined  in  one  squeal 
of  despair  as  the  river  leaped  forward  with 
them,  and  a  dreadful  "Oh!"  went  up  from 
the  people  on  the  bank. 

Some  of  the  firemen  had  run  down  to  the 
bridge  when  they  saw  that  the  skiff  was  not 
going  to  be  of  any  use,  and  one  of  them  had 

46 


Jim  Leonard's  Hair-breadth  Escape 

got  out  of  the  window  of  the  bridge  onto  the 
middle  pier,  with  a  long  pole  in  his  hand. 
It  had  an  iron  hook  at  the  end,  and  it  was  the 
kind  of  pole  that  the  men  used  to  catch  drift 
wood  with  and  drag  it  ashore.  When  the 
people  saw  Blue  Bob  with  that  pole  in  his 
hand,  they  understood  what  he  was  up  to. 
He  was  going  to  wait  till  the  water  brought 
the  roof  with  Jim  Leonard  on  it  down  to  the 
bridge,  and  then  catch  the  hook  into  the 
shingles  and  pull  it  up  to  the  pier.  The 
strongest  current  set  close  in  around  the 
middle  pier,  and  the  roof  would  have  to  pass 
on  one  side  or  the  other.  That  was  what 
Blue  Bob  argued  out  in  his  mind  when  he 
decided  that  the  skiff  would  never  reach 
Jim  Leonard,  and  he  knew  that  if  he  could 
not  save  him  that  way,  nothing  could  save 
him. 

Blue  Bob  must  have  had  a  last  name,  but 
none  of  the  little  fellows  knew 'what  it  was. 
Everybody  called  him  Blue  Bob  because  he 
had  such  a  thick,  black  beard  that  when  he 
was  just  shaved  his  face  looked  perfectly 
blue.  He  knew  all  about  the  river  and  its 
47 


The   Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

ways,  and  if  it  had  been  of  any  use  to  go 
out  with  a  boat,  he  would  have  gone.  That 
was  what  all  the  boys  said,  when  they  fol 
lowed  Blue  Bob  to  the  bridge  and  saw  him 
getting  out  on  the  pier.  He  was  the  only 
person  that  the  watchman  had  let  go  on  the 
bridge  for  two  days. 

The  water  was  up  within  three  feet  of  the 
floor,  and  if  Jim  Leonard's  roof  slipped  by 
Blue  Bob's  guard  and  passed  under  the 
bridge,  it  would  scrape  Jim  Leonard  off, 
and  that  would  be  the  last  of  him. 

All  the  time  the  roof  was  coming  nearer 
the  bridge,  sometimes  slower,  sometimes 
faster,  just  as  it  got  into  an  eddy  or  into  the 
current;  once  it  seemed  almost  to  stop,  and 
swayed  completely  round ;  then  it  just  darted 
forward. 

Blue  Bob  stood  on  the  very  point  of  the 
pier,  where  the  strong  stone-work  divided 
the  current,  and  held  his  hooked  pole  ready 
to  make  a  clutch  at  the  roof,  whichever  side 
it  took.  Jim  Leonard  saw  him  there,  but 
although  he  had  been  holloing  and  yelling 
and  crying  all  the  time,  now  he  was  still. 


Jim  Leonard's  Hair-breadth  Escape 

He  wanted  to  say,  "0  Bob,  save  me!"  but 
he  could  not  make  a  sound. 

It  seemed  to  him  that  Bob  was  going  to 
miss  him  when  he  made  a  lunge  at  the  roof 
on  the  right  side  of  the  pier;  it  seemed  to 
him  that  the  roof  was  going  down  the  left 
side ;  but  he  felt  it  quiver  and  stop,  and  then 
it  gave  a  loud  crack  and  went  to  pieces,  and 
flung  itself  away  upon  the  whirling  and 
dancing  flood.  At  first  Jim  Leonard  thought 
he  had  gone  with  it;  but  it  was  only  the  rat 
that  tried  to  run  up  Blue  Bob's  pole,  and 
slipped  off  into  the  water;  and  then  some 
how  Jim  was  hanging  onto  Blue  Bob's 
hands  and  scrambling  onto  the  bridge. 

Blue  Bob  always  said  he  never  saw  any 
rat,  and  a  good  many  people  said  there  never 
was  any  rat  on  the  roof  with  Jim  Leonard; 
they  said  that  he  just  made  the  rat  up. 

He  did  not  mention  the  rat  himself  for 
several  days;  he  told  Pony  Baker  that  he 
did  not  think  of  it  at  first,  he  was  so  excited. 

Pony  asked  his  father  what  he  thought, 
and  Pony's  father  said  that  it  might  have 
been  the  kind  of  rat  that  people  see  when 
4  49 


The   Flight   of  Pony   Baker 

they  have  been  drinking  too  much,  and 
that  Blue  Bob  had  not  seen  it  because  he 
had  signed  the  temperance  pledge. 

But  this  was  a  good  while  after.  At  the 
time  the  people  saw  Jim  Leonard  standing 
safe  with  Blue  Bob  on  the  pier,  they  set  up  a 
regular  election  cheer,  and  they  would  have 
believed  anything  Jim  Leonard  said.  They 
all  agreed  that  Blue  Bob  had  a  right  to  go 
home  with  Jim  and  take  him  to  his  mother, 
for  he  had  saved  Jim's  life,  and  he  ought  to 
have  the  credit  of  it. 

Before  this,  and  while  everybody  supposed 
that  Jim  Leonard  would  surely  be  drowned, 
some  of  the  people  had  gone  up  to  his  mother's 
cabin  to  prepare  her  for  the  worst.  She  did 
not  seem  to  understand  exactly,  and  she 
kept  round  getting  breakfast,  with  her  old 
clay  pipe  in  her  mouth;  but  when  she  got 
it  through  her  head,  she  made  an  awful  face, 
and  dropped  her  pipe  on  the  door-stone  and 
broke  it;  and  then  she  threw  her  check  apron 
over  her  head  and  sat  down  and  cried. 

But  it  took  so  long  for  her  to  come  to  this 
that  the  people  had  not  got  over  comforting 
50 


I'LL  LEARN  THAT   LIMB  TO   SLEEP   IN  A 
COW-BARN  !'  " 


Jim  Leonard's  Hair-breadth  Escape 

her  and  trying  to  make  her  believe  that  it 
was  all  for  the  best,  when  Blue  Bob  came 
up  through  the  bars  with  his  hand  on  Jim's 
shoulder,  and  about  all  the  boys  in  town 
tagging  after  them. 

Jim's  mother  heard  the  hurrahing  and  pull 
ed  off  her  apron,  and  saw  that  Jim  was  safe 
and  sound  there  before  her.  She  gave  him  a 
look  that  made  him  slip  round  behind  Blue 
Bob,  and  she  went  in  and  got  a  table-knife, 
and  she  came  out  and  went  to  the  pear-tree 
and  cut  a  sucker. 

She  said,  "  111  learn  that  limb  to  sleep  in  a 
cow-barn  when  he's  got  a  decent  bed  in  the 
house  1"  and  then  she  started  to  come  towards 
Jim  Leonard. 


IV 


THE  SCRAPE  THAT  JIM  LEONARD  GOT 
THE  BOYS  INTO 

A 5  I  said,  it  was  in  the  spring  that  Jim 
Leonard's  hair-breadth  escape  happened. 
But  it  was  late  in  the  summer  of  that  very 
same  year  that  he  got  Pony  Baker  and  all 
the  rest  of  the  boys  into  about  one  of  the  worst 
scrapes  that  the  Boy's  Town  boys  were  ever 
in. 

At  first,  it  was  more  like  a  dare  than  any 
thing  else,  for  when  Jim  Leonard  said  he 
knew  a  watermelon  patch  that  the  owner 
had  no  use  for,  the  other  boys  dared  him  to 
tell  where  it  was.  He  wagged  his  head,  and 
said  that  he  knew,  and  then  they  dared  him 
to  tell  whose  patch  it  was ;  and  all  at  once  he 
said  it  was  Bunty  Williams 's,  and  dared  them 
to  come  and  get  the  melons  with  him.  None 
of  the  boys  in  the  Boy's  Town  would  take  a 
52 


The   Boys   in   a,   Scrape 

dare,  and  so  they  set  off  with  Jim  Leonard, 
one  sunny  Saturday  morning  in  September. 

Some  of  the  boys  had  their  arms  round  one 
another's  necks,  talking  as  loud  as  they  could 
into  one  another's  faces,  and  some  whooping 
and  holloing,  and  playing  Indian,  and  some 
throwing  stones  and  scaring  cats.  They  had 
nearly  as  many  dogs  as  there  were  boys,  and 
there  were  pretty  nearly  all  the  boys  in  the 
neighborhood.  There  seemed  to  be  thirty  or 
forty  of  them,  they  talked  so  loud  and  ran 
round  so,  but  perhaps  there  were  only  ten  or 
eleven.  Hen  Billard  was  along,  and  so  were 
Piccolo  Wright  and  Archie  Hawkins,  and 
then  a  great  lot  of  little  fellows. 

Pony  Baker  was  not  quite  a  little  fellow 
in  age;  and  there  was  something  about  him 
that  always  made  the  big  boys  let  him  go 
with  their  crowd.  But  now,  when  they  pass 
ed  Pony's  gate  and  his  mother  saw  them, 
and  because  it  was  such  a  warm  morning 
and  she  thought  they  might  be  going  down 
to  the  river  and  called  out  to  him,  "You 
mustn't  go  in  swimming,  Pony,  dear;  you'll 
get  the  ague,"  they  began  to  mock  Pony 
53 


The  Flight   of  Pony   Baker 

as  soon  as  they  got  by,  and  to  hollo,  "No, 
Pony,  dear!  You  mustn't  get  the  ague. 
Keep  out  of  the  water  if  you  don't  want  your 
V?eth  to  rattle,  Pony,  dear!" 

This  made  Pony  so  mad  that  he  began  to 
cry  and  try  to  fight  them,  and  they  all  formed 
in  a  ring  round  him  and  danced  and  whoop 
ed  till  he  broke  through  and  started  home. 
Then  they  ran  after  him  and  coaxed  him  not 
to  do  it,  and  said  that  they  were  just  in  fun. 
After  that  they  used  Pony  first-rate,  and  he 
kept  on  with  them. 

Jim  Leonard  was  at  the  head,  walking 
along  and  holloing  to  the  fellows  to  hurry 
up.  They  had  to  wade  the  river,  and  he  was 
showing  off  how  he  could  hop,  skip,  and  jump 
through,  when  he  stepped  on  a  slippery 
stone  and  sat  down  in  the  water  and  made 
the  fellows  laugh.  But  they  acted  first-rate 
with  him  when  they  got  across;  they  helped 
him  to  take  off  his  trousers  and  wring  them 
out,  and  thejr  wrung  them  so  hard  that  they 
tore  them  a  little,  but  they  were  a  little  torn 
already;  and  they  wrung  them  so  dry  that 
he  said  they  felt  splendid  when  he  got  them 
54 


The  Boys    in    a   Scrape 

on  again.  One  of  his  feet  went  through  the 
side  of  the  trouser  leg  that  was  torn  before 
it  got  to  the  end,  and  made  the  fellows  laugh. 

When  the  boys  first  started  Jim  said  he 
had  got  to  go  ahead  so  as  to  be  sure  that 
they  found  the  right  patch.  He  now  said 
that  Bunty  Williams  had  two  patches,  one 
that  he  was  going  to  sell  the  melons  out  of, 
and  the  other  that  he  was  going  to  let  them 
go  to  seed  in;  and  it  was  the  second  melon 
patch  that  he  had  deserted. 

But  pretty  soon  after  they  got  over  the 
river  he  came  back  and  walked  with  the 
rest  of  the  boys,  and  when  they  came  to  a 
piece  of  woods  which  they  had  to  go  through, 
he  dropped  behind.  He  said  it  was  just  the 
place  for  Indian,  and  he  wanted  to  be  where 
he  could  get  at  them  if  they  started  up  when 
the  boys  got  by,  as  they  would  very  likely  do. 

Some  of  the  big  fellows  called  him  a 
cowardy-calf ;  but  he  said  he  would  show 
them  when  the  time  came,  and  most  of  the 
little  boys  believed  him  and  tried  to  get  in 
front.  It  was  not  long  before  he  stopped  and 
asked,  What  if  he  could  not  find  the  right 
55 


The   Flight   of  Pony   Baker 

patch?  But  the  big  boys  said  that  they 
reckoned  he  could  if  he  looked  hard  enough, 
and  they  made  him  keep  on. 

One  of  the  dogs  treed  a  squirrel,  and  Jim 
offered  to  climb  the  tree  and  shake  the  squirrel 
off;  but  Hen  Billard  said  his  watermelon 
tooth  was  beginning  to  trouble  him,  and  he 
had  no  time  for  squirrels.  That  made  all 
the  big  boys  laugh,  and  they  pulled  Jim 
Leonard  along,  although  he  held  back  with 
all  his  might  and  told  them  to  quit  it.  He 
began  to  cry. 

Pony  Baker  did  not  know  what  to  make 
of  him.  He  felt  sorry  for  him,  but  it  seemed 
to  him  that  Jim  was  acting  as  if  he  wanted 
to  get  out  of  showing  the  fellows  where  the 
patch  was.  Pony  lent  him  his  handkerchief, 
and  Jim  said  that  he  had  the  toothache, 
anyway.  He  showed  Pony  the  tooth,  and 
the  fellows  saw  him  and  made  fun,  and  they 
offered  to  carry  him,  if  his  tooth  ached  so 
that  he  could  not  walk,  and  then  suddenly 
Jim  rushed  ahead  of  the  whole  crowd. 

They  thought  he  was  trying  to  run  away 
from  them,  and  two  or  three  of  the  big  fellows 

56 


The  Boys   in  a   Scrape 

took  after  him,  and  when  they  caught  up 
with  him,  the  rest  of  the  boys  could  see  him 
pointing,  and  then  the  big  boys  that  were 
with  him  gave  a  whoop  and  waved  their 
hats,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  boys  tore  along 
and  tried  which  could  run  the  fastest  and 
get  to  the  place  the  soonest. 

They  knew  it  must  be  something  great; 
and  sure  enough  it  was  a  watermelon  patch 
of  pretty  near  an  acre,  sloping  to  the  south 
from  the  edge  of  the  woods,  and  all  overrun 
with  vines  and  just  bulging  all  over  with 
watermelons  and  muskmelons. 

The  watermelons  were  some  of  the  big 
mottled  kind,  with  lightish  blotches  among 
their  darker  green,  like  Georgia  melons  nowa 
days,  and  some  almost  striped  in  gray  and 
green,  and  some  were  those  big,  round  sugar 
melons,  nearly  black.  They  were  all  sizes, 
but  most  of  them  were  large,  and  you  need 
not  "punk"  them  to  see  if  they  were  ripe. 
Anybody  could  tell  that  they  were  ripe  from 
looking  at  them,  and  the  muskmelons,  which 
were  the  old-fashioned  long  kind,  were  yellow 
as  gold. 

57 


The   Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

Now,  the  big  fellows  said,  you  could  see 
why  Bunty  Williams  had  let  this  patch  go 
to  seed.  It  was  because  they  were  such  bully 
melons  and  would  have  the  best  seeds;  and 
the  fellows  all  agreed  to  save  the  seeds  for 
Bunty,  and  put  them  where  he  could  find 
them.  They  began  to  praise  Jim  Leonard 
up,  but  he  did  not  say  anything,  and  only 
looked  on  with  his  queer,  sleepy  eyes,  and 
said  his  tooth  ached,  when  the  fellows  plung 
ed  down  among  the  melons  and  began  to 
burst  them  open. 

They  had  lots  of  fun.  At  first  they  cut  a 
few  melons  open  with  their  knives,  but  that 
was  too  slow,  and  pretty  soon  they  began 
to  jump  on  them  and  split  them  with  sharp- 
edged  rocks,  or  anything,  to  get  them  open 
quick.  They  did  not  eat  close  to  the  rind, 
as  you  do  when  you  have  a  melon  on  the 
table,  but  they  tore  out  the  core  and  just  ate 
that;  and  in  about  a  minute  they  forgot  all 
about  saving  the  seeds  for  Bunty  Williams 
and  putting  them  in  one  place  where  he  could 
get  them. 

Some  of  the  fellows  went  into  the  edge 

58 


The  Boys    in    a  Scrape 

of  the  woods  to  eat  their  melons,  and  then 
came  back  for  more;  some  took  them  and 
cracked  them  open  on  the  top  rail  of  the 
fence,  and  then  sat  down  in  the  fence  corner 
and  plunged  their  fists  in  and  tore  the  cores 
out.  Some  of  them  squeezed  the  juice  out 
of  the  cores  into  the  shells  of  the  melons  and 
then  drank  it  out  of  them. 

Piccolo  Wright  was  stooping  over  to  pull  a 
melon  and  Archie  Hawkins  came  up  behind 
him  with  a  big  melon  that  had  a  seam  across 
it,  it  was  so  ripe ;  and  he  brought  it  down  on 
Piccolo's  head,  and  it  smashed  open  and  went 
all  over  Piccolo.  He  was  pretty  mad  at  first, 
but  then  he  saw  the  fun  of  it,  and  he  took 
one  end  of  the  melon  and  scooped  it  all  out, 
and  put  it  on  in  place  of  his  hat  and  wore 
it  like  a  helmet.  Archie  did  the  same  thing 
with  the  other  end,  and  then  all  the  big 
boys  scooped  out  melons  and  wore  them  for 
helmets.  They  were  all  drabbled  with  seeds 
and  pulp,  and  some  of  the  little  fellows  were 
perfectly  soaked.  None  of  them  cared  very 
much  for  the  muskmelons. 

Somehow  Pony  would  not  take  any  of  the 
59 


The   Flight   of  Pony   Baker 

melons,  although  there  was  nothing  that  he 
liked  so  much.  The  fellows  seemed  to  be 
having  an  awfully  good  time,  and  yet  some 
how  it  looked  wrong  to  Pony.  He  knew  that 
Bunty  Williams  had  given  up  the  patch, 
because  Jim  Leonard  said  so,  and  he  knew 


,7V 


that  the  boys  had  a  right  to  the  melons  if 
Bunty  had  got  done  with  them;  but  still  the 
sight  of  them  there,  smashing  and  gorging, 
made  Pony  feel  anxious.  It  almost  made 
him  think  that  Jim  Leonard  was  better  than 
the  rest  because  he  would  not  take  any  of  the 
melons,  but  stayed  off  at  one  side  of  the  patch 
near  the  woods,  where  Pony  stood  with  him. 

He  did  not  say  much,  and  Pony  noticed 
that  he  kept  watching  the  log  cabin  where 
Bunty  Williams  lived  on  the  slope  of  the  hill 
about  half  a  mile  off,  and  once  he  heard  Jim 
saying,  as  if  to  himself :  "  No,  there  isn't  any 
smoke  coming  out  of  the  chimbly,  and  that's 
a  sign  there  ain't  anybody  there.  They've 
all  gone  to  market,  I  reckon." 

It  went  through  Pony  that  it  was  strange 
Jim  should  care  whether  Bunty  was  at  home 
or  not,  if  Bunty  had  given  up  the  patch,  but 
60 


The  Boys    in    a    Scrape 

he  did  not  say  anything;  it  often  happened 
so  with  him  about  the  things  he  thought 
strange. 

The  fellows  did  not  seem  to  notice  where 
he  was  or  what  he  was  doing;  they  were 
all  whooping  and  holloing,  and  now  they 
began  to  play  war  with  the  watermelon  rinds. 
One  of  the  dogs  thought  he  smelled  a  ground- 
squirrel  and  began  to  dig  for  it,  and  in  about 
half  a  minute  all  the  dogs  seemed  to  be  fight 
ing,  and  the  fellows  were  yelling  round  them 
and  sicking  them  on;  and  they  were  all 
making  such  a  din  that  Pony  could  hardly 
hear  himself  think,  as  his  father  used  to  say. 
But  he  thought  he  saw  some  one  come  out 
of  Bunty's  cabin,  and  take  down  the  hill  with 
a  dog  after  him  and  a  hoe  in  his  hand. 

He  made  Jim  Leonard  look,  and  Jim  just 
gave  a  screech  that  rose  above  the  din  of  the 
dogs  and  the  other  boys,  "Bunty's  coming, 
and  he's  got  his  bulldog  and  his  shotgun!" 
And  then  he  turned  and  broke  through  the 
woods. 

All  the  boys  stood  still  and  stared  at  the 
hill-side,  while  the  dogs  fought  on.  The  next 
61 


The   Flight    of  Pony  Bakef 

thing  they  knew  they  were  floundering 
among  the  vines  and  over  the  watermelon 
cores  and  shells  and  breaking  for  the  woods ; 
and  as  soon  as  the  dogs  found  the  boys  were 
gone,  they  seemed  to  think  it  was  no  use  to 
keep  on  fighting  with  nobody  to  look  on, 
and  they  took  after  the  fellows. 

The  big  fellows  holloed  to  the  little  fellows 
to  come  on,  and  the  little  fellows  began 
crying.  They  caught  their  feet  in  the  roots 
and  dead  branches  and  kept  falling  down, 
and  some  of  the  big  fellows  that  were  clever, 
like  Hen  Billard  and  Archie  Hawkins,  came 
back  and  picked  them  up  and  started  them 
on  again. 

Nobody  stopped  to  ask  himself  or  any  one 
else  why  they  should  be  afraid  of  Bunty  if 
he  had  done  with  his  melon  patch,  but  they 
all  ran  as  if  he  had  caught  them  stealing  his 
melons,  and  had  a  right  to  shoot  them,  or 
set  his  dog  on  them. 

They  got  through  the  woods  to  the  shore 

of  the  river,  and  all  the  time  they  could  hear 

Bunty  Williams  roaring  and  shouting,  and 

Bunty  Williams 's  bulldog  barking,  and  it 

62 


The   Boys    in    a   Scrape 

seemed  as  if  he  were  right  behind  them. 
After  they  reached  the  river  they  had  to  run 
a  long  way  up  the  shore  before  they  got  to 
the  ripple  where  they  could  wade  it,  and  by 
that  time  they  were  in  such  a  hurry  that  they 
did  not  stop  to  turn  up  their  trousers'  legs; 
they  just  splashed  right  in  and  splashed 
across  the  best  way  they  could.  Some  of 
them  fell  down,  but  everybody  had  to  look 
out  for  himself,  and  they  did  not  know  that 
they  were  all  safe  over  till  they  counted  up 
on  the  other  side. 

Everybody  was  there  but  Jim  Leonard, 
and  they  did  not  know  what  had  become  of 
him,  but  they  were  not  very  anxious.  In 
fact  they  were  all  talking  at  the  tops  of  their 
voices,  and  bragging  what  they  would  have 
done  if  Bunty  had  caught  them. 

Piccolo  Wright  showed  how  he  could  have 
tripped  him  up,  and  Archie  Hawkins  said 
that  snuff  would  make  a  bulldog  loosen  his 
grip,  because  he  would  have  to  keep  sneezing. 
None  of  them  seemed  to  have  seen  either 
Bunty's  shotgun  or  his  bulldog,  but  they 
all  believed  that  he  had  them  because  Jim 

63 


The   Flight   of  Pony  Baker 

Leonard  said  so,  just  as  they  had  believed 
that  Bunty  had  got  done  with  his  melon 
patch,  until  all  at  once  one  of  them  said, 
''Where  is  Jim  Leonard,  anyway?" 

Then  they  found  out  that  nobody  knew, 
and  the  little  fellows  began  to  think  that 
maybe  Bunty  Williams  had  caught  him,  but 
Hen  Billard  said:  "Oh,  he's  safe  enough, 
somewheres.  I  wish  I  had  him  here!" 

Archie  Hawkins  asked,  "  What  would  you 
do  to  him?"  and  Hen  said:  "I'd  show  you! 
I'd  make  him  go  back  and  find  out  whether 
Bunty  really  had  a  bulldog  with  him.  I 
don't  believe  he  had." 

Then  all  the  big  boys  said  that  none  of 
them  believed  so,  either,  and  that  they  would 
bet  that  any  of  their  dogs  could  whip  Bunty's 
dog. 

Their  dogs  did  not  look  much  like  fighting. 
They  were  wet  with  running  through  the 
river,  and  they  were  lying  round  with  their 
tongues  hanging  out,  panting.  But  it  made 
the  boys  think  that  something  ought  to  be 
done  to  Jim  Leonard,  if  they  could  ever  find 
him,  and  some  one  said  that  they  ought 


The   Boys    in    a    Scrape 

to  look  for  him  right  away,  but  the  rest  said 
they  ought  to  stop  and  dry  their  pantaloons 
first. 

Pony  began  to  be  afraid  they  were  going 
to  hurt  Jim  Leonard  if  they  got  hold  of  him, 
and  he  said  he  was  going  home;  and  the 
boys  tried  to  keep  him  from  doing  it.  They 
said  they  were  just  going  to  build  a  drift 
wood  fire  and  dry  their  clothes  at  it,  and 
they  told  him  that  if  he  went  off  in  his  wet 
trousers  he  would  be  sure  to  get  the  ague. 
But  nothing  that  the  boys  could  do  would 
keep  him,  and  so  the  big  fellows  said  to  let 
him  go  if  he  wanted  to  so  much;  and  he 
climbed  the  river  bank  and  left  them  kindling 
a  fire. 

When  he  got  away  and  looked  back,  all 
the  boys  had  their  clothes  off  and  were  dan 
cing  round  the  fire  like  Indians,  and  he  would 
have  liked  to  turn  back  after  he  got  to  the 
top,  and  maybe  he  might  have  done  so  if 
he  had  not  found  Jim  Leonard  hiding  in  a 
hole  up  there  and  peeping  over  at  the  boys. 
Jim  was  crying,  and  said  his  tooth  ached 
awfully,  and  he  was  afraid  to  go  home  and 


The   Flight   of  Pony   Baker 

get  something  to  put  in  it,  because  his  mother 
would  whale  him  as  soon  as  she  caught  him. 

He  said  he  was  hungry,  too,  and  he  wanted 
Pony  to  go  over  into  a  field  with  him  and 
get  a  turnip,  but  Pony  would  not  do  it.  He 
had  three  cents  in  his  pocket — the  big  old 
kind  that  were  as  large  as  half-dollars  and 
seemed  to  buy  as  much  in  that  day — and  he 
offered  to  let  Jim  take  them  and  go  and  get 
something  to  eat  at  the  grocery. 

They  decided  he  should  buy  two  smoked 
red  herrings  and  a  cent's  worth  of  crackers, 
and  these  were  what  Jim  brought  back  after 
he  had  been  gone  so  long  that  Pony  thought 
he  would  never  come.  He  had  stopped  to 
get  some  apples  off  one  of  the  trees  at  his 
mother's  house,  and  he  had  to  watch  his 
chance  so  that  she  should  not  see  him,  and 
then  he  had  stopped  and  taken  some  potatoes 
out  of  a  hill  that  would  be  first-rate  if  they 
could  get  some  salt  to  eat  them  with,  after 
they  had  built  a  fire  somewhere  and  baked 
them. 

They  thought  it  would  be  a  good  plan  to 
dig  one  of  these  little  caves  just  under  the 
66 


The   Boys    in    a    Scrape 

edge  of  the  bank,  and  make  a  hole  in  the 
top  to  let  the  smoke  out;  but  they  would 
have  to  go  a  good  way  off  so  that  the  other 
fellows  could  not  see  them,  and  they  could 
not  wait  for  that.  They  divided  the  herrings 
between  them,  and  they  each  had  two  crack 
ers  and  three  apples,  and  they  made  a  good 
meal. 

Then  they  went  to  a  pump  at  the  nearest 
house,  where  the  woman  said  they  might 
have  a  drink,  and  drank  themselves  full. 
They  wanted  awfully  to  ask  her  for  some 
salt,  but  they  did  not  dare  to  do  it  for  fear 
she  would  make  them  tell  what  they  wanted 
it  for.  So  they  came  away  without,  and  Jim 
said  they  could  put  ashes  on  their  potatoes 
the  way  the  Indians  did,  and  it  would  be  just 
as  good  as  salt. 

They  ran  back  to  the  river  bank,  and  ran 
along  up  it  till  they  were  out  of  sight  of 
the  boys  on  the  shore  below,  and  then  they 
made  their  oven  in  it,  and  started  their  fire 
with  some  matches  that  Jim  Leonard  had  in 
his  pocket,  so  that  if  he  ever  got  lost  in  the 
woods  at  night  he  could  make  a  fire  and  keep 


The   Flight    of   Pony    Baker 

from  freezing.  His  tooth  had  stopped  aching 
now,  and  he  kept  telling  such  exciting  stories 
about  Indians  that  Pony  could  not  seem  to 
get  the  chance  to  ask  why  Bunty  Williams 
should  take  after  the  boys  with  his  shotgun 
and  bulldog  if  he  had  given  up  the  water 
melon  patch  and  only  wranted  it  for  seed. 

The  question  lurked  in  Pony's  mind  all 
the  time  that  they  were  waiting  for  the  pota 
toes  to  bake,  but  somehow  he  could  not  get 
it  out.  He  did  not  feel  very  well,  and  he 
tried  to  forget  his  bad  feelings  by  listening 
as  hard  as  he  could  to  Jim  Leonard's  stories. 
Jim  kept  taking  the  potatoes  out  to  see  if 
they  were  done  enough,  and  he  began  to 
eat  them  while  they  were  still  very  hard  and 
greenish  under  the  skin.  Pony  ate  them, 
too,  although  he  was  not  hungry  now,  and 
he  did  not  think  the  ashes  were  as  good  as 
salt  on  them,  as  Jim  pretended.  The  potato 
he  ate  seemed  to  make  him  feel  no  better,  and 
at  last  he  had  to  tell  Jim  that  he  was  afraid 
he  was  going  to  be  sick. 

Jim  said  that  if  they  could  heat  some 
stones,  and  get  a  blanket  anywhere,  and 
68 


The   Boys    in    a    Scrape 

put  it  over  Pony  and  the  stones,  and  then 
pour  water  on  the  hot  stones,  they  could 
give  him  a  steam  bath  the  way  the  Indians 
did,  and  it  would  cure  him  in  a  minute; 
they  could  get  the  stones  easy  enough,  and 
he  could  bring  water  from  the  river  in  his 
straw  hat,  but  the  thing  of  it  was  to  get  the 
blanket. 

He  stood  looking  thoughtfully  down  at 
Pony,  who  was  crying  now,  and  begging 
Jim  Leonard  to  go  home  with  him,  for  he 
did  not  believe  he  could  walk  on  account  of 
the  pain  that  seemed  to  curl  him  right  up. 
He  asked  Jim  if  he  believed  he  was  begin 
ning  to  have  the  ague,  but  Jim  said  it  was 
more  like  the  yellow  janders,  although  he 
agreed  that  Pony  had  better  go  home,  for  it 
was  pretty  late,  anyway. 

He  made  Pony  promise  that  if  he  would 
take  him  home  he  would  let  him  get  a  good 
way  off  before  he  went  into  the  house,  so 
that  Pony's  father  and  mother  should  not 
see  who  had  brought  him.  He  said  that 
when  he  had  got  off  far  enough  he  would 
hollo,  and  then  Pony  could  go  in.  He  was 


The   Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

first-rate  to  Pony  on  the  way  home,  and 
helped  him  to  walk,  and  when  the  pain 
curled  him  up  so  tight  that  he  could  not 
touch  his  foot  to  the  ground,  Jim  carried 
him. 

Pony  could  never  know  just  what  to  make 
of  Jim  Leonard.  Sometimes  he  was  so  good 
to  you  that  you  could  not  help  thinking  he 
was  one  of  the  cleverest  fellows  in  town, 
and  then  all  of  a  sudden  he  would  do  some 
thing  mean.  He  acted  the  perfect  coward 
at  times,  and  at  other  times  he  was  not  afraid 
of  anything.  Almost  any  of  the  fellows 
could  whip  him,  but  once  he  went  into  an 
empty  house  that  was  haunted,  and  came 
and  looked  out  of  the  garret  windows,  and 
dared  any  of  them  to  come  up. 

He  offered  now,  if  Pony  did  not  want  to 
go  home  and  let  his  folks  find  out  about 
the  melon  patch,  to  take  him  to  his  moth 
er's  log -barn,  and  get  a  witch-doctor  to 
come  and  tend  him;  but  Pony  said  that  he 
thought  they  had  better  keep  on,  and  then 
Jim  trotted  and  asked  him  if  the  jolting  did 
not  do  him  some  good.  He  said  he  just 
70 


The   Boys    in    a   Scrape 

wished  there  was  an  Indian  medicine-man 
around  somewhere. 

They  were  so  long  getting  to  Pony's  house 
that  it  was  almost  dusk  when  they  reached' 
the  back  of  the  barn,  and  Jim  put  him  over 
the  fence.  Jim  started  to  run,  and  Pony 
waited  till  he  got  out  of  sight  and  holloed; 
then  he  began  to  shout,  "Father!  Mother! 
O  mother!  Come  out  here!  I'm  sick!" 

It  did  not  seem  hardly  a  second  till  he 
heard  his  mother  calling  back:  "Pony! 
Pony!  Where  are  you,  child?  Where  are 
you?" 

"Here,  behind  the  barn!"  he  answered. 

Pony's  mother  came  running  out,  and 
then  his  father,  and  when  they  had  put  him 
into  his  own  bed  up-stairs,  his  mother  made 
his  father  go  for  the  doctor.  While  his 
father  was  gone,  his  mother  got  the  whole 
story  out  of  Pony — what  he  had  been  doing 
all  day,  and  what  he  had  been  eating — 
but  as  to  who  had  got  him  into  the  trouble, 
she  said  she  knew  from  the  start  it  must  be 
Jim  Leonard. 

After  the  doctor  came  and  she  told  him 

71 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Baker 

what  Pony  had  been  eating,  without  telling 
all  that  he  had  been  doing,  the  doctor  gave 
him  something  to  make  him  feel  better.  As 
soon  as  he  said  he  felt  better  she  began  to 
talk  very  seriously  to  him,  and  to  tell  him 
how  anxious  she  had  been  ever  since  she 
had  seen  him  going  off  in  the  morning  with 
Jim  Leonard  at  the  head  of  that  crowd  of 
boys. 

"Didn't  you  know  he  couldn't  be  telling 
the  truth  when  he  said  the  man  had  left  his 
watermelon  patch?  Didn't  any  of  the  boys ?" 

"No/'  said  Pony,  thoughtfully. 

"  But  when  he  pretended  that  he  shouldn't 
know  the  right  patch,  and  wanted  to  turn 
back?" 

"  We  didn't  think  anything.  We  thought 
he  just  wanted  to  get  out  of  going.  Ought 
they  let  him  turn  back?  Maybe  he  meant 
to  keep  the  patch  all  to  himself." 

His  mother  was  silent,  and  Pony  asked, 
"Do  you  believe  that  a  boy  has  a  right  to 
take  anything  off  a  tree  or  a  vine?" 

"No;  certainly  not." 

"Well,  that's  what  I  think,  too." 
72 


The   Boys    in    a    Scrape 

"Why,  Pony/'  said  his  mother,  "is  there 
anybody  who  thinks  such  a  thing  can  be 
right?" 

"Well,  the  boys  say  it's  not  stealing. 
Stealing  is  hooking  a  thing  out  of  a  wagon 
or  a  store;  but  if  you  can  knock  a  thing  off 
a  tree,  or  get  it  through  a  fence,  when  it's  on 
the  ground  already,  then  it's  just  like  gath 
ering  nuts  in  the  woods.  That's  what  the 
boys  say.  Do  you  think  it  is?" 

"I  think  it's  the  worst  kind  of  stealing. 
I  hope  my  boy  doesn't  do  such  things." 

"  Not  very  often,"  answered  Pony,  thought 
fully.  "When  there's  a  lot  of  fellows  to 
gether,  you  don't  want  them  to  laugh  at 
you." 

"0  Pony,  dear!"  said  his  mother,  almost 
crying. 

"Well,  anyway,  mother,"  Pony  said,  to 
cheer  her  up,  "  I  didn't  take  any  of  the  water 
melons  to-day,  for  all  Jim  said  Bunty  had 
got  done  with  them." 

"I'm  so  glad  to  think  you  didn't!     And 
you  must  promise,  won't  you,  never  to  touch 
any  fruit  that  doesn't  belong  to  you?" 
73 


The   Flight   of  Pony   Baker 

"But  supposing  an  apple  was  to  drop 
over  the  fence  onto  the  sidewalk,  what  would 
you  do  then?" 

"I  should  throw  it  right  back  over  the 
fence  again/'  said  Pony's  mother. 

Pony  promised  his  mother  never  to  touch 
other  people's  fruit,  but  he  was  glad  she  did 
not  ask  him  to  throw  it  back  over  the  fence 
if  it  fell  outside,  for  he  knew  the  fellows 
would  laugh. 

His  father  came  back  from  going  down 
stairs  with  the  doctor,  and  she  told  him  all 
that  Pony  had  told  her,  and  it  seemed  to 
Pony  that  his  father  could  hardly  keep 
from  laughing.  But  his  mother  did  not 
even  smile. 

"  How  could  Jim  Leonard  tell  them  that  a 
man  would  give  up  his  watermelon  patch, 
and  how  could  they  believe  such  a  lie,  poor, 
foolish  boys?" 

"They  wished  to  believe  it,"  said  Pony's 
father,  "and  so  did  Jim,  I  dare  say." 

"He  might  have  got  some  of  them  killed, 
if  Bunty  Williams  had  fired  his  gun  at  them," 
said  Pony's  mother;  and  he  could  see  that 

74 


The  Boys    in    a   Scrape 

she  was  not  half-satisfied  with  what  his 
father  said. 

"Perhaps  it  was  a  hoe,  after  all.  You 
can't  shoot  anybody  with  a  hoe-handle,  and 
there  is  nothing  to  prove  that  it  was  a  gun 
but  Jim's  word." 

"Yes,  and  here  poor  Pony  has  been  so 
sick  from  it  all,  and  Jim  Leonard  gets  off 
without  anything." 

"You  are  always  wanting  the  tower  to 
fall  on  the  wicked,"  said  Pony's  father, 
laughing.  "When  it  came  to  the  worst, 
Jim  didn't  take  the  melons  any  more  than 
Pony  did.  And  he  seems  to  have  wanted 
to  back  out  of  the  whole  affair  at  one 
time." 

"Oh!  And  do  you  think  that  excuses 
him?" 

"No,  I  don't.  But  I  think  he's  had  a 
worse  time,  if  that's  any  comfort,  than  Pony 
has.  He  has  suffered  the  fate  of  all  liars. 
Sooner  or  later  their  lies  outwit  them  and 
overmaster  them,  for  whenever  people  be 
lieve  a  liar  he  is  forced  to  act  as  if  he  had 
spoken  the  truth.  That's  worse  than  hav- 
75 


The   Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

ing  a  tower  fall  on  you,  or  pains  in  the  stom 
ach." 

Pony's  mother  was  silent  for  a  moment  as 
if  she  could  not  answer,  and  then  she  said, 
"Well,  all  I  know  is,  I  wish  there  was  no 
such  boy  in  this  town  as  Jim  Leonard." 


ABOUT  RUNNING  AWAY  TO  THE  INDIAN 

RESERVATION  ON  A  CANAL-BOAT,  AND 

HOW  THE  PLAN  FAILED 

NOW,  anybody  can  see  the  kind  of  a 
boy  that  Jim  Leonard  was,  pretty  well; 
and  the  strange  thing  of  it  was  that  he  could 
have  such  a  boy  as  Pony  Baker  under  him 
so.  But,  anyway,  Pony  liked  Jim,  as  much 
as  his  mother  hated  him,  and  he  believed 
everything  Jim  said  in  spite  of  all  that  had 
happened. 

After  Jim  promised  to  find  out  whether 
there  was  any  Indian  reservation  that  you 
could  walk  to,  he  pretended  to  study  out  in 
the  geography  that  the  only  reservation 
there  was  in  the  State  was  away  up  close  to 
Lake  Erie,  but  it  was  not  far  from  the  same 
canal  that  ran  through  the  Boy's  Town  to 
77 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Baker 

the  lake,  and  Jim  said,  "I'll  tell  you  what, 
Pony!  The  way  to  do  will  be  to  get  into 
a  canal-boat,  somehow,  and  that  will  take 
you  to  the  reservation  without  your  hardly 
having  to  walk  a  step;  and  you  can  have 
fun  on  the  boat,  too." 

Pony  agreed  that  this  would  be  the  best 
way,  but  he  did  not  really  like  the  notion  of 
living  so  long  among  the  Indians  that  he 
would  not  remember  his  father  and  mother 
when  he  saw  them ;  he  would  like  to  stay  till 
he  was  pretty  nearly  grown  up,  and  then 
come  back  in  a  chief's  dress,  with  eagle 
plumes  all  down  his  back  and  a  bow  in  his 
hand,  and  scare  them  a  little  when  he  first 
came  in  the  house  and  then  protect  them 
from  the  tribe  and  tell  them  who  he  was,  and 
enjoy  their  surprise.  But  he  hated  to  say 
this  to  Jim  Leonard,  because  he  would  think 
he  was  afraid  to  live  with  the  Indians  always. 
He  hardly  dared  to  ask  him  what  the  Indians 
would  do  to  him  if  they  did  not  adopt  him, 
but  he  thought  he  had  better,  and  Jim  said : 

"Oh,  burn  you,  maybe.  But  it  ain't 
likely  but  what  they'll  adopt  you;  and  if 

78 


About    Running   Away 

they  do  they'll  take  you  down  to  the  river, 
and  wash  you  and  scrub  you,  so's  to  get  all 
the  white  man  off,  and  then  pull  out  your 
hair,  a  hair  at  a  time,  till  there's  nothing 
but  the  scalp-lock  left,  so  that  your  enemies 
can  scalp  you  handy;  and  then  you're  just 
as  good  an  Indian  as  anybody,  and  nobody 
can  pick  on  you,  or  anything.  The  thing 
is  how  to  find  the  canal-boat." 

The  next  morning  at  school  it  began  to  be 
known  that  Pony  Baker  was  going  to  run 
off  on  a  canal-boat  to  see  the  Indians,  and 
all  the  fellows  said  how  he  ought  to  do  it. 
One  of  the  fellows  said  that  he  ought  to  get 
to  drive  the  boat  horses,  and  another  that 
he  ought  to  hide  on  board  in  the  cargo,  and 
come  out  when  the  boat  was  passing  the 
reservation;  and  another  that  he  ought  to 
go  for  a  cabin-boy  on  one  of  the  passenger- 
packets,  and  then  he  could  get  to  the  Ind 
ians  twice  as  soon  as  he  could  on  a  freight- 
boat.  But  the  trouble  was  that  Pony  was 
so  little  that  they  did  not  believe  they  would 
take  him  either  for  a  driver  or  a  cabin-boy; 
and  he  said  he  was  not  going  to  hide  in  the 
79 


The   Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

cargo,  because  the  boats  were  full  of  rats, 
and  he  was  not  going  to  have  rats  running 
over  him  all  the  time. 

Some  of  the  fellows  thought  this  showed  a 
poor  spirit  in  Pony,  and  wanted  him  to  take 
his  dog  along  and  hunt  the  rats;  they  said 
he  could  have  lots  of  fun;  but  others  said 
that  the  dog  would  bark  as  soon  as  he  began 
to  hunt  the  rats,  and  then  Pony  would  be 
found  out  and  put  ashore  in  a  minute.  The 
fellows  could  not  think  what  to  do  till  at 
last  one  of  them  said: 

"You  know  Piccolo  Wright?" 

"Yes." 

"Well,  you  know  his  father  has  got  a 
boat?" 

"Yes.     Well?" 

"Well,  and  he's  got  a  horse,  too;  and 
everything." 

"Well,  what  of  it?" 

"Get  Piccolo  to  hook  the  boat  and  take 
Pony  to  the  reservation." 

The  fellows  liked  this  notion  so  much 
that  they  almost  hurrahed,  and  they  could 
hardly  wait  till  school  was  out  and  they 
80 


About   Running   Away 

could  go  and  find  Piccolo  and  ask  him 
whether  he  would  do  it.  They  found  hint 
up  at  the  canal  basin,  where  he  was  fishing 
off  the  stern  of  his  father's  boat.  He  was  a 
pretty  big  boy,  though  he  was  not  so  very 
old,  ai«d  he  had  a  lazy,  funny  face  and  white 
hair;  and  the  fellows  called  him  Piccolo  be 
cause  he  was  learning  to  play  the  piccolo 
flute,  and  talked  about  it  when  he  talked  at 
all,  but  that  was  not  often.  He  was  one  of 
those  boys  who  do  not  tan  or  freckle  in  the 
sun,  but  peel,  and  he  always  had  some  loose 
pieces  of  fine  skin  hanging  to  his  nose. 

All  the  fellows  came  up  and  began  hollo 
ing  at  once,  and  telling  him  what  they  wanted 
him  to  do,  and  he  thought  it  was  a  first-rate 
notion,  but  he  kept  on  fishing,  without  get 
ting  the  least  bit  excited;  and  he  did  not 
say  whether  he  would  do  it  or  not,  and  when 
the  fellows  got  tired  of  talking  they  left 
him  and  began  to  look  round  the  boat.  There 
was  a  little  cabin  at  one  end,  and  all  the  rest 
of  the  boat  was  open,  and  it  had  been  rain 
ing,  or  else  the  boat  had  leaked,  and  it  was 
pretty  full  of  water;  and  the  fellows  got  down 
6  81 


The   Flight   of  Pony   Baker 

on  some  loose  planks  that  were  floating 
there,  and  had  fun  pushing  them  up  and 
down,  and  almost  forgot  what  they  had 
come  for.  They  found  a  long  pump  leaning 
against  the  side  of  the  boat,  with  its  spout 
out  over  the  gunwale,  and  they  asked  Pic 
colo  if  they  might  pump,  and  he  said  they 
might,  and  they  pumped  nearly  all  the  water 
out  after  they  had  got  done  having  fun  on 
the  planks. 

Some  of  them  went  into  the  cabin  and 
found  a  little  stove  there,  where  Pony  could 
cook  his  meals,  and  a  bunk  where  he  could 
sleep,  or  keep  in  out  of  the  rain,  and  they 
said  they  wished  they  were  going  to  run  off, 
too.  They  took  more  interest  than  he  did, 
but  they  paid  him  a  good  deal  of  attention, 
and  he  felt  that  it  was  great  to  be  going  to 
run  off,  and  he  tried  not  to  be  homesick, 
when  he  thought  of  being  down  there  alone 
at  night,  and  nobody  near  but  Piccolo  out 
on  the  towpath  driving  the  horse. 

The  fellows  talked  it  all  over,  and  how 
they  would  do.  They  said  that  Piccolo 
ought  to  hook  the  boat  some  Friday  night, 
82 


About   Running   Away 

and  the  sooner  the  better,  and  get  a  good 
start  before  Saturday  morning.  They  were 
going  to  start  with  Pony,  and  perhaps  travel 
all  night  with  him,  and  then  get  off  and  sleep 
in  the  woods,  to  rest  themselves,  and  then 
walk  home;  and  the  reason  that  Piccolo 
ought  to  hook  the  boat  Friday  night  was 
that  they  could  have  all  Saturday  to  get 
back,  when  there  was  no  school. 

If  the  boat  went  two  miles  an  hour,  which 
she  always  did,  even  if  she  was  loaded  with 
stone  from  Piccolo's  father's  quarry,  she 
would  be  fifteen  miles  from  the  Boy's  Town 
by  daybreak;  and  if  they  kept  on  travelling 
night  and  day,  and  Pony  drove  the  horse 
part  of  the  time,  they  could  reach  the  Indian 
reservation  Monday  evening,  for  they  would 
not  want  to  travel  Sunday,  because  it  was 
against  the  law,  and  it  was  wicked,  any 
way.  If  they  travelled  on  Sunday,  and  a 
storm  came  up,  just  as  likely  as  not  the  boat 
would  get  struck  by  lightning,  and  if  it  did, 
the  lightning  would  run  out  along  the  rope 
and  kill  the  horse  and  Piccolo,  too,  if  he  was 
riding.  But  the  way  for  Piccolo  to  do  was 

83 


The   Flight    of  Pony   Baker 

always  to  come  aboard  when  it  began  to 
rain,  and  that  would  keep  Pony  company  a 
little,  and  they  could  make  the  horse  go  by 
throwing  stones  at  him. 

Pony  and  Piccolo  ought  to  keep  together 
as  much  as  they  could,  especially  at  night, 
so  that  if  there  were  robbers,  they  could  de 
fend  the  boat  better.  Of  course,  they  could 
not  make  the  horse  go  by  throwing  stones 
at  him  in  the  dark,  and  the  way  for  them  to 
do  was  for  Pony  to  get  out  and  ride  behind 
Piccolo.  Besides  making  it  safer  against 
robbers,  they  could  keep  each  other  from 
going  to  sleep  by  talking,  or  else  telling 
stories;  or  if  one  of  them  did  doze  off,  the 
other  could  hold  him  on;  and  they  must 
take  turn  about  sleeping  in  the  daytime. 

But  the  best  way  of  all  to  scare  the  robbers 
wras  to  have  a  pistol,  and  fire  it  off  every  lit 
tle  once  in  a  while,  so  as  to  let  them  know 
that  the  boat  was  armed.  One  of  the  fellows 
that  had  a  pistol  said  he  would  lend  it  to 
Pony  if  Pony  would  be  sure  to  send  it  back 
from  the  reservation  by  Piccolo,  for  he 
should  want  it  himself  on  the  Fourth,  which 


About   Running   Away 

was  coming  in  about  three  weeks.  An 
other  fellow  that  had  five  cents,  which  he 
was  saving  up  till  he  could  get  ten,  to  buy 
a  pack  of  shooting-crackers,  said  he  would 
lend  it  to  Pony  to  buy  powder,  if  he  only 
felt  sure  that  he  could  get  it  back  to  him  in 
time.  All  the  other  fellows  said  he  could  do 
it  easily,  but  they  did  not  say  how;  one  of 
them  offered  to  go  and  get  the  powder  at  once, 
so  as  to  have  it  ready. 

But  Pony  told  him  it  would  not  be  of  any 
use,  for  he  had  promised  his  mother  that  he 
would  not  touch  a  pistol  or  powder  before 
the  Fourth.  None  of  the  fellows  seemed  to 
think  it  was  strange  that  he  should  be  will 
ing  to  run  away  from  home,  and  yet  be  so 
anxious  to  keep  his  promise  to  his  mother 
that  he  would  not  use  a  pistol  to  defend  him 
self  from  robbers;  and  none  of  them  seemed 
to  think  it  was  strange  that  they  should  not 
want  Piccolo,  if  he  hooked  his  father's  boat, 
to  travel  on  Sunday  with  it. 

After  a  while  Piccolo  came  to  the  little 
hatch-door,  and  looked  down  into  the  cabin 
where  the  boys  were  sitting  and  talking  at 

85 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Baker 

the  tops  of  their  voices ;  but  in  about  a  min 
ute  he  vanished,  very  suddenly  for  him,  and 
they  heard  him  pumping,  and  then  before 
they  knew  it,  they  heard  a  loud,  harsh  voice 
shouting,  "Heigh,  there!" 

They  looked  round,  and  at  the  open  win 
dow  of  the  cabin  on  the  land-side  they  saw  a 
man's  face,  and  it  seemed  to  fill  the  whole 
window.  They  knew  it  must  be  Piccolo's 
father,  and  they  just  swarmed  up  the  gang 
way  all  in  a  bunch.  Some  of  them  fell,  but 
these  hung  on  to  the  rest,  somehow,  and  they 
all  got  to  the  deck  of  the  cabin  together,  and 
began  jumping  ashore,  so  that  Piccolo's 
father  could  not  catch  them.  He  was  stand 
ing  on  the  basin  bank,  saying  something, 
but  they  did  not  know  what,  and  they  did 
not  stop  to  ask,  and  they  began  to  run  every 
which  way. 

They  all  got  safely  ashore,  except  Jim 
Leonard ;  he  fell  over  the  side  of  the  boat  be 
tween  it  and  the  bank,  but  he  scrambled  up 
out  of  the  water  like  lightning,  and  ran 
after  the  rest.  He  was  pretty  long-legged, 
and  he  soon  caught  up,  but  he  was  just  rain- 
86 


About   Running   Away 

ing  water  from  his  clothes,  and  it  made  the 
fellows  laugh  so  that  they  could  hardly  run, 
to  hear  him  swish  when  he  jolted  along. 
They  did  not  know  what  to  do  exactly,  till 
one  of  them  said  they  ought  to  go  down  to 
the  river  and  go  in  swimming,  and  they  could 
wring  Jim  Leonard's  clothes  out,  and  lay 
them  on  the  shore  to  dry,  and  stay  in  long 
enough  to  let  them  dry.  That  was  what 
they  did,  and  they  ran  round  through  the 
backs  of  the  gardens  and  the  orchards,  and 
through  the  alleys,  and  climbed  fences,  so 
that  nobody  could  see  them.  The  day  was 
pretty  hot,  and  by  the  time  they  got  to  the 
river  they  were  all  sweating,  so  that  Jim's 
clothes  were  not  much  damper  than  the 
others.  He  had  nothing  but  a  shirt  and 
trousers  on,  anyway. 

After  that  they  did  not  try  to  get  Piccolo 
to  hook  his  father's  boat,  for  they  said  that 
his  father  might  get  after  them  any  time, 
and  he  would  have  a  right  to  do  anything 
he  pleased  to  them,  if  he  caught  them.  They 
could  not  think  of  any  other  boat  that  they 
could  get,  and  they  did  not  know  how  Pony 


The   Flight   of  Pony  Baker 

could  reach  the  reservation  without  a  canal- 
boat.  That  was  the  reason  why  they  had  to 
give  up  the  notion  of  his  going  to  the  Ind 
ians  ;  and  if  anybody  had  told  them  that  the 
Indians  were  going  to  come  to  Pony  they 
would  have  said  he  was  joking,  or  else  cra 
zy;  but  this  was  really  what  happened.  It 
happened  a  good  while  afterwards;  so  long 
afterwards  that  they  had  about  forgotten  he 
ever  meant  to  run  off,  and  they  had  got  done 
talking  about  it. 


VI 

HOW  THE  INDIANS  CAME  TO  THE  BOY'S 

TOWN  AND  JIM  LEONARD  ACTED 

THE  COWARD 

JIM  LEONARD  was  so  mad  because  he 
lost  his  chip -hat  in  the  canal  basin, 
when  he  fell  off  the  boat  (and  had  to  go  home 
bareheaded  and  tell  his  mother  all  about 
what  happened,  though  his  clothes  were  dry 
enough,  and  he  might  have  got  off  without 
her  noticing  anything,  if  it  had  not  been  for 
his  hat)  that  he  would  not  take  any  interest 
in  Pony.  But  he  kept  on  taking  an  interest 
in  Indians,  and  he  was  the  most  excited  fel- 
lov  in  the  whole  Boy's  Town  when  the  Ind 
ians  came. 

The  way  they  came  to  town  was  this: 
The  white  people  around  the  reservation 
got  tired  of  having  them  there,  or  else  they 

89 


The   Flight   of  Pony  Baker 

wanted  their  land,  and  the  government 
thought  it  might  as  well  move  them  out 
West,  where  there  were  more  Indians,  there 
were  such  a  very  few  of  them  on  the  reserva 
tion;  and  so  it  loaded  them  on  three  canal- 
boats  and  brought  them  down  through  the 
Boy's  Town  to  the  Ohio  River,  and  put  them 
on  a  steamboat,  and  then  took  them  down 
to  the  Mississippi,  and  put  them  on  a  reser 
vation  beyond  that  river. 

The  boys  did  not  know  anything  about 
this,  and  they  would  not  have  cared  much 
if  they  had.  All  they  knew  was  that  one 
morning  (and  it  happened  to  be  Saturday) 
three  canal-boats,  full  of  Indians,  came  into 
the  basin.  Nobody  ever  knew  which  boy 
saw  them  first.  It  seemed  as  if  all  the  fel 
lows  in  the  Boy's  Town  happened  to  be  up 
at  the  basin  at  once,  and  were  standing  there 
when  the  boats  came  in.  When  they  saw 
that  they  were  real  Indians,  in  blankets, 
with  bows  and  arrows,  warriors,  squaws,  pa 
pooses,  and  everything,  they  almost  went 
crazy,  and  when  a  good  many  of  the  Indians 
came  ashore  and  went  over  to  the  court- 
90 


Indians    in    the   Boy's   Town 

house  yard  and  began  to  shoot  at  quarters 
and  half-dollars  that  the  people  stuck  into 
the  ground  for  them  to  shoot  at,  the  fellows 
could  hardly  believe  their  eyes.  They  yelled 
and  cheered  and  tried  to  get  acquainted  with 
the  Indian  boys,  and  ran  and  got  their  ar 
rows  for  them,  and  everything;  and  if  the 
Indians  could  only  have  stayed  until  the 
Fourth,  which  was  pretty  near  now,  they 
would  have  thought  it  was  the  greatest 
thing  that  ever  happened.  Jim  Leonard 
said  they  belonged  to  a  tribe  that  had  been 
against  the  British  in  the  last  war,  and  were 
the  friends  of  the  Long  Knives,  as  the}7 
called  the  Americans.  He  said  that  he  read 
it  in  a  book;  and  he  hunted  round  for  Pony 
Baker,  and  when  he  found  him  he  said: 
"  Come  here,  Pony ;  I  want  to  tell  you  some 
thing." 

Any  other  time  all  the  other  fellows  would 
have  crowded  around  and  wanted  to  know 
what  it  was,  but  now  they  were  so  much 
taken  up  with  the  Indians  that  none  of  them 
minded  him,  and  so  he  got  a  good  chance 
at  Pony  alone.  Pony  was  afraid  that  Jim 
91 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Baker 

Leonard  wanted  him  to  run  off  with  the 
Indians,  and  this  was  just  what  he  did  want. 

He  said :  "  You  ought  to  get  a  blanket  and 
stain  your  face  and  hands  with  walnut  juice, 
and  then  no  one  could  tell  you  from  the  rest 
of  the  tribe,  and  you  could  go  out  with  them 
where  they're  going  and  hunt  buff  aloes. 
It's  the  greatest  chance  there  ever  was. 
They  11  adopt  you  into  the  tribe,  maybe,  as 
soon  as  the  canal-boats  leave,  or  as  quick 
as  they  can  get  to  a  place  where  they  can 
pull  your  hair  out  and  wash  you  in  the  canal. 
I  tell  you,  if  I  was  in  your  place,  I'd  do  it, 
Pony." 

Pony  did  not  know  what  to  say.  He 
hated  to  tell  Jim  Leonard  that  he  had  pretty 
nearly  given  up  the  notion  of  running  off 
for  the  present,  or  until  his  father  and  mother 
did  something  more  to  make  him  do  it. 

Ever  since  the  boys  failed  so  in  trying  to 
get  Piccolo  to  hook  his  father's  boat  for 
Pony  to  run  off  in,  things  had  been  going 
better  with  Pony  at  home.  His  mother  did 
not  stop  him  from  half  so  many  things  as 
she  used  to  do,  and  lately  his  father  had  got 
92 


Indians    in    the   Boy's    Town 

to  being  very  good  to  him :  let  him  lie  in  bed 
in  the  morning,  and  did  not  seem  to  notice 
when  he  stayed  out  with  the  boys  at  night, 
telling  stories  on  the  front  steps,  or  playing 
hide  -  and  -  go  -  whoop,  or  anything.  They 
seemed  to  be  a  great  deal  taken  up  with  each 
other  and  not  to  mind  so  much  what  Pony 
was  doing. 

His  mother  let  him  go  in  swimming  when 
ever  he  asked  her,  and  did  not  make  him 
promise  to  keep  out  of  the  deep  water.  She 
said  she  would  see,  when  he  coaxed  her  for 
five  cents  to  get  powder  for  the  Fourth,  and 
she  let  him  have  one  of  the  boys  to  spend  the 
night  with  him  once,  and  she  gave  them 
waffles  for  breakfast.  She  showed  herself 
something  like  a  mother,  and  she  had  told 
him  that  if  he  would  be  very,  very  good 
she  would  get  his  father  to  give  him  a  quar 
ter,  so  that  he  could  buy  two  packs  of  shoot 
ing-crackers,  as  well  as  five  cents'  worth  of 
powder  for  the  Fourth.  But  she  put  her 
arms  around  him  and  hugged  him  up  to  her 
and  kissed  his  head  and  said: 

"  You  11  be  very  careful,  Pony,  won't  you? 
93 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Baker 

You're  all  the  little  boy  we've  got,  and  if 
anything  should  happen  to  you — " 

She  seemed  to  be  almost  crying,  and  Pony 
laughed  and  said:  "Why,  nothing  could 
happen  to  you  with  shooting  -  crackers "; 
and  she  could  have  the  powder  to  keep  for 
him;  and  he  would  just  make  a  snake  with 
it  Fourth  of  July  night ;  put  it  around  through 
the  grass,  loose,  and  then  light  one  end  of  it, 
and  she  would  see  how  it  would  go  off  and 
not  make  the  least  noise.  But  she  said  she 
did  not  want  to  see  it ;  only  he  must  be  careful  ; 
and  she  kissed  him  again  and  let  him  go,  and 
when  he  got  away  he  could  see  her  wiping 
her  eyes.  It  seemed  to  him  that  she  was 
crying  a  good  deal  in  those  days,  and  he 
could  not  understand  what  it  was  about. 
She  was  scared  at  any  little  thing,  and  would 
whoop  at  the  least  noise,  and  when  his  father 
would  say :  "  Lucy,  my  dear  girl !"  she  would 
burst  out  crying  and  say  that  she  could  not 
help  it.  But  she  got  better  and  better  to 
Pony  all  the  time,  and  it  was  this  that  now 
made  him  ashamed  with  Jim  Leonard,  be 
cause  it  made  him  not  want  to  run  off  so  much. 
94 


Indians    in    the   Boy's   Town 

He  dug  his  toe  into  the  turf  in  the  court 
house  yard  under  the  locust-tree,  and  did 
not  say  anything  till  Jim  Leonard  asked 
him  if  he  was  afraid  to  go  off  and  live  with 
the  Indians,  because  if  he  was  going  to  be  a 
cowardy-calf  like  that,  it  was  all  that  Jim 
Leonard  wanted  to  do  with  him. 

Pony  denied  that  he  was  afraid,  but  he 
said  that  he  did  not  know  how  to  talk  Indian, 
and  he  did  not  see  how  he  was  going  to  get 
along  without. 

Jim  Leonard  laughed  and  said  if  that  was 
all,  he  need  not  be  anxious.  "The  Indians 
don't  talk  at  all,  hardly,  even  among  each 
other.  They  just  make  signs;  didn't  you 
know  that?  If  you  want  something  to  eat 
you  point  to  your  mouth  and  chew;  and  if 
you  want  a  drink,  you  open  your  mouth  and 
keep  swallowing.  When  you  want  to  go  to 
sleep  you  shut  your  eyes  and  lean  your 
cheek  over  on  your  hand,  this  way.  That's 
all  the  signs  you  need  to  begin  with,  and 
you'll  soon  learn  the  rest.  Now,  say,  are 
you  going  with  the  Indians,  or  ain't  you  go 
ing?  It's  your  only  chance.  Why,  Pony, 
95 


The    Flight    of  Pony   Baker 

what  are  you  afraid  of?  Hain't  you  always 
wanted  to  sleep  out-doors  and  not  do  any 
thing  but  hunt?" 

Pony  had  to  confess  that  he  had,  and  then 
Jim  Leonard  said :  "  Well,  then,  that's  what 
you'll  do  if  you  go  with  the  Indians.  I  sup 
pose  you'll  have  to  go  on  the  warpath  with 
them  when  you  get  out  there;  and  if  it's 
against  the  whites  you  won't  like  it  at  first; 
but  you've  got  to  remember  what  the  whites 
have  done  to  the  Indians  ever  since  they 
discovered  America,  and  you'll  soon  get  to 
feeling  like  an  Indian  anyway.  One  thing 
is,  you've  got  to  get  over  being  afraid." 

That  made  Pony  mad,  and  he  said:  "I 
ain't  afraid  now." 

"I  know  that,"  said  Jim  Leonard.  "But 
what  I  mean  is,  that  if  you  get  hurt  you 
mustn't  hollo,  or  cry,  or  anything ;  and  even 
when  they're  scalping  you,  you  mustn't 
even  make  a  face,  so  as  to  let  them  know 
that  you  feel  it." 

By  this  time  some  of  the  other  fellows  be 
gan  to  come  around  to  hear  what  Jim  Leon 
ard  was  saying  to  Pony.  A  good  many  of 


Indians    in    the   Boy's   Town 

the  Indians  had  gone  off  anyway,  for  the 
people  had  stopped  sticking  quarters  into 
the  ground  for  them  to  shoot  at,  and  they 
could  not  shoot  at  nothing.  Jim  Leonard 
saw  the  fellows  crowding  around,  but  he 
went  on  as  if  he  did  not  notice  them. 
"  You've  got  to  go  without  eating  anything 
for  weeks  when  the  medicine-man  tells  you 
to;  and  when  you  come  back  from  the  war 
path,  and  they  have  a  scalp-dance,  you've 
got  to  keep  dancing  till  you  drop  in  a  fit. 
When  they  give  a  dog  feast  you  must  eat 
dog  stew  until  you  can't  swallow  another 
mouthful,  and  you  11  be  so  full  that  you  11 
just  have  to  lay  around  for  days  without 
moving.  But  the  great  thing  is  to  bear  any 
kind  of  pain  without  budging  or  saying  a 
single  word.  Maybe  you're  used  to  holloing 
now  when  you  get  hurt?" 

Pony  confessed  that  he  holloed  a  little; 
the  others  tried  to  look  as  if  they  never  hol 
loed  at  all,  and  Jim  Leonard  went  on: 

"Well,  you've  got  to  stop  that.  If  an 
arrow  was  to  go  through  you  and  stick  out 
at  your  back,  or  anywhere,  you  must  just 
97 


The    Flight    cf  Pony    Baker 

reach  around  and  pull  it  out  and  not  speak. 
When  you're  having  the  sun-dance — I  think 
it's  the  sun-dance,  but  I  ain't  really  certain 
— you  have  to  stick  a  hook  through  you, 
right  here" — he  grabbed  Pony  by  the  mus 
cles  on  his  shoulders — "and  let  them  pull 
you  up  on  a  pole  and  hang  there  as  long  as 
they  please.  They'll  let  you  practise  grad 
ually  so  that  you  won't  mind  hardly  any 
thing.  Why,  I've  practised  a  good  deal  by 
myself,  and  now  I've  got  so  that  I  believe  if 
you  was  to  stick  me  with — " 

All  of  a  sudden  something  whizzed  along 
the  ground  and  Jim  Leonard  stooped  over 
and  caught  one  of  his  feet  up  in  his  hand, 
and  began  to  cry  and  to  hollo:  "Oh,  oh, 
oh!  Ow,  ow,  ow!  Oh,  my  foot!  Oh,  it's 
broken;  I  know  it  is!  Oh,  run  for  the  doc 
tor,  do,  Pony  Baker!  I  know  I'm  going  to 
die!  Oh,  dear,  oh  dear,  oh  dear!" 

All  the  boys  came  crowding  around  to  see 
what  the  matter  was,  and  the  men  came,  too, 
and  pretty  soon  some  one  found  an  arrow 
in  the  grass,  and  then  they  knew  that  it  was 
a  stray  arrow  that  had  hit  Jim  Leonard  on 

98 


Indians    in    the  Boy's   Town 

the  side  of  the  foot,  after  missing  one  of  the 
dimes  that  was  stuck  in  the  ground.  It 
was  blunt,  and  it  had  not  hurt  him  that 
anybody  could  see,  except  rubbed  the  skin 
off  a  little  on  the  ankle -bone.  But  Jim 
Leonard  began  to  limp  away  towards  home, 
and  now,  as  the  Indians  had  all  gone  back 
to  their  boats,  and  the  fellows  had  nothing 
else  to  do,  they  went  along  with  him. 

Archy  Hawkins  held  him  up  on  one  side, 
and  Hen  Billard  on  the  other,  and  Archy 
said,  "I  tell  you,  when  I  heard  Jim  yell,  I 
thought  it  was  a  real  Indian,"  and  Hen 
said: 

"I  thought  it  was  the  scalp-halloo." 

Archy  said,  "The  way  I  came  to  think  it 
was  a  real  Indian  was  that  a  real  Indian 
never  makes  any  noise  when  he's  hurt," 
and  Hen  said: 

"I  thought  it  was  the  scalp-halloo,  be 
cause  Jim  was  stooping  over  as  if  he  was 
tearing  the  scalp  off  of  a  white  man.  He's 
been  practising,  you  know." 

"Well,  practice  makes  perfect.  I  reckon 
if  Jim  hasn't  got  so  far  that  he  would  smile 
99 


The   Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

when  you  scalped  him,  or  just  laugh  if  you 
shot  an  arrow  through  him,  or  would  let  you 
stick  a  hook  into  him,  and  pull  him  up  to  the 
top  of  a  pole,  it's  because  he's  begun  at  the 
other  end.  I'll  bet  he  could  eat  himself  full 
of  dog  stew,  and  lay  around  three  days  with 
out  stirring/' 

Jim  Leonard  thought  the  fellows  had  come 
along  to  pity  him  and  help  him;  but  when 
he  heard  Archy  Hawkins  say  that,  and 
Hen  Billard  began  to  splutter  and  choke 
with  the  laugh  he  was  holding  in,  he  flung 
them  off  and  began  to  fight  at  them  with  his 
fists,  and  strike  right  and  left  blindly.  He 
broke  out  crying,  and  then  the  fellows  made 
a  ring  around  him  and  danced  and  mocked 
him. 

"  Hey,  Jim,  what  'd  you  do  if  they  pulled 
your  hair  out?" 

"  Jimmy,  oh,  Jim !  Would  you  hollo  much 
louder  if  they  tomahawked  you?" 

"Show  your  uncle  how  to  dance  till  you 
drop,  Jim." 

They  kept  on  till  Jim  Leonard  picked  up 
stones  to  stone  them,  and  then  they  all  ran 
100 


Indians    in    the  Boy* 3  Town 

away,  jumping  and  jeering  till  they  got  out 
of  sight.  It  was  about  dinner-time,  any 
way. 

No  one  was  left  but  Pony  Baker.  He 
stooped  down  over  Jim  when  he  sat  crying 
over  his  foot.  "Does  it  hurt  you  much, 
Jimmy?"  he  asked. 

"Yes,  it  hurts  dreadfully,  Pony.  The 
skin's  all  rubbed  off.  I'm  afraid  it's  broken 
my  leg." 

"Well,  let  me  help  you  home,"  said  Pony. 
"Your  mother  can  tie  it  up,  then." 

He  made  Jim  lean  on  him,  and  keep  try 
ing  his  foot,  and  pretty  soon  they  found  he 
could  walk  with  it  nearly  the  same  as  the 
other  foot,  and  before  they  got  to  Jim's  house 
they  were  talking  and  laughing  together. 

After  that,  Pony  Baker  gave  up  running 
off  to  the  Indians.  He  about  gave  up  run 
ning  off  altogether.  He  had  a  splendid 
Fourth  of  July.  His  mother  would  not  let 
him  stay  up  the  whole  of  the  night  before, 
but  she  let  him  get  up  at  four  o'clock,  and 
fire  off  both  his  packs  of  shooting-crackers; 
and  though  she  had  forbidden  him  to  go 
101 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Baker 

down  to  the  river-bank  where  the  men  were 
firing  off  the  cannon,  he  hardly  missed  it. 
He  felt  sleepy  as  soon  as  his  crackers  were 
done,  and  another  fellow  who  was  with  him 
came  into  the  parlor,  and  they  both  lay  down 
on  the  carpet  and  went  to  sleep  there,  and 
slept  till  breakfast-time.  After  breakfast  he 
went  up  to  the  court-house  yard,  with  some 
other  fellows,  and  then,  after  dinner,  when 
they  all  came  round  and  begged,  and  the  big 
fellows  promised  to  watch  out  for  Pony,  his 
mother  let  him  go  out  to  the  second  lock 
with  them,  and  go  in  swimming  in  the  canal. 
He  did  not  know  why  this  should  be  such  a 
great  privilege,  but  it  was.  He  had  never 
been  out  to  the  second  lock  before.  It  was 
outside  of  the  corporation  line,  and  that 
was  a  great  thing  in  itself. 

After  supper,  Pony's  mother  let  him  fire 
off  his  powder-snake,  and  she  even  came 
out  and  looked  at  it,  with  her  fingers  in  her 
ears.  He  promised  her  that  it  wouldn't 
make  any  noise,  but  she  could  not  believe 
him;  and  when  the  flash  came,  she  gave  a 
little  whoop,  and  ran  in-doors.  It  shamed 

102 


Indians    in    the  Boy's   Town 

him  before  the  boys,  for  fear  they  would 
laugh;  and  she  acted  even  worse  when  his 
father  wished  to  let  him  go  up  to  the  court 
house  yard  to  see  the  fireworks. 

A  lot  of  the  fellows  were  going,  and  he 
was  to  go  with  the  crowd,  but  his  father 
was  to  come  a  little  behind,  so  as  to  see  that 
nothing  happened  to  him;  and  when  they 
were  just  starting  off  what  should  she  do 
but  hollo  to  his  father  from  the  door  where 
she  was  standing,  "Do  be  careful  of  the 
child,  Henry  1"  It  did  not  seem  as  if  she 
could  be  a  good  mother  when  she  tried,  and 
she  was  about  the  afraidest  mother  in  the 
Boy's  Town. 

All  the  way  up  to  the  court-house  the  boys 
kept  snickering  and  whispering,  "Don't 
stump  your  toe,  child/'  and  "Be  careful  of 
the  child,  boys/'  and  things  like  that  till 
Pony  had  to  fight  some  of  them.  Then  they 
stopped.  They  were  afraid  his  father  would 
hear,  anyway. 

But  the  fireworks  were  splendid,  and  the 
fellows  were  very  good  to  Pony,  because  his 
father  stood  in  the  middle  of  the  crowd  and 

103 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Baker 

treated  them  to  lemonade,  and  they  did  not 
plague,  any  more,  going  home.  It  was  ten 
o'clock  when  Pony  got  home;  it  was  the 
latest  he  had  ever  been  up. 

The  very  Fourth  of  July  before  that  one 
he  had  been  up  pretty  nearly  as  late  listen 
ing  to  his  cousin,  Frank  Baker,  telling  about 
the  fun  he  had  been  having  at  a  place  called 
Pawpaw  Bottom;  and  the  strange  thing 
that  happened  there,  if  it  did  happen,  for 
nobody  could  exactly  find  out.  So  I  think  I 
had  better  break  off  again  from  Pony,  and 
say  what  it  was  that  Frank  told;  and  after 
that  I  can  go  on  with  Pony's  running  off. 


VII 


HOW  FRANK  BAKER  SPENT  THE  FOURTH 

AT  PAWPAW  BOTTOM,  AND  SAW 

THE  FOURTH  OF  JULY  BOY 

IT  was  the  morning  of  the  Fourth,  and 
Frank  was  so  anxious  to  get  through 
with  his  wood-sawing,  and  begin  celebrat 
ing  with  the  rest  of  the  boys,  that  he  hardly 
knew  what  to  do.  He  had  a  levvy  (as  the 
old  Spanish  real  used  to  be  called  in  south 
ern  Ohio)  in  his  pocket,  and  he  was  going 
to  buy  a  pack  of  shooting-crackers  for  ten 
cents,  and  spend  the  other  two  cents  for 
powder.  He  had  no  pistol,  but  he  knew  a 
fellow  that  would  lend  him  his  pistol  part  of 
the  time,  and  he  expected  to  have  about  the 
best  Fourth  he  ever  had.  He  had  been  up 
since  three  o'clock  watching  the  men  fire  the 
old  six-pounder  on  the  river-bank;  and  he 
105 


The   Flight    of  Pony   Baker 

was  going  to  get  his  mother  to  let  him  go 
up  to  the  fireworks  in  the  court-house  yard 
after  dark. 

But  now  it  did  not  seem  as  if  he  could 
get  wood  enough  sawed.  TwTice  he  asked 
his  mother  if  she  thought  he  had  enough, 
but  she  said  "Not  near/'  and  just  as  Jake 
Milrace  rode  up  the  saw  caught  in  a  splinter 
of  the  tough  oak  log  Frank  was  sawing  and 
bumped  back  against  Frank's  nose;  and  he 
would  have  cried  if  it  had  not  been  for  what 
Jake  began  to  say. 

He  said  he  was  going  to  Pawpaw  Bot 
tom  to  spend  the  Fourth  at  a  fellow's  named 
Dave  Black,  and  he  told  Frank  he  ought  to 
go  too;  for  there  were  plenty  of  mulberries 
on  Dave's  father's  farm,  and  the  early  ap 
ples  were  getting  ripe  enough  to  eat,  if  you 
pounded  them  on  a  rock;  and  you  could  go 
in  swimming,  and  everything.  Jake  said 
there  was  the  greatest  swimming  -  hole  at 
Pawpaw  Bottom  you  ever  saw,  and  they 
had  a  log  in  the  water  there  that  you  could 
have  lots  of  fun  with.  Frank  ran  into  the 
house  to  ask  his  mother  if  he  might  go,  and 
!06 


How  Frank  Baker  Spent  the  Fourth 

he  hardly  knew  what  to  do  when  she  asked 
him  if  there  was  wood  enough  yet  to  get 
dinner  and  supper.  But  his  Aunt  Manda 
was  spending  the  summer  with  his  mother, 
and  she  said  she  reckoned  she  could  pick 
up  chips  to  do  all  the  cooking  they  needed, 
such  a  hot  day;  and  Frank  ran  out  to  the 
cow-house,  where  they  kept  the  pony,  be 
cause  the  Bakers  had  no  stable,  and  saddled 
him,  and  was  off  with  Jake  Milrace  in  about 
a  minute. 

The  pony  was  short  and  fat  and  lazy,  and 
he  had  to  be  whipped  to  make  him  keep 
up  with  Jake's  horse.  It  was  not  exactly 
Jake's  horse;  it  was  his  sister's  husband's 
horse,  and  he  had  let  Jake  have  it  because 
he  would  not  be  using  it  himself  on  the  Fourth 
of  July.  It  was  tall  and  lean,  and  it  held 
its  head  so  high  up  that  it  was  no  use  to  pull 
on  the  bridle  when  it  began  to  jump  and 
turn  round  and  round,  which  it  did  every 
time  Frank  whipped  his  pony  to  keep  even 
with  Jake.  It  would  shy  and  sidle,  and 
dart  so  far  ahead  that  the  pony  would  get 
discouraged  and  would  lag  back,  and  have 
107 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Baker 

to  be  whipped  up  again;  and  then  the  whole 
thing  would  have  to  be  gone  through  with 
the  same  as  at  first.  The  boys  did  not  have 
much  chance  to  talk,  but  they  had  a  splendid 
time  riding  along,  and  when  they  came  to  a 
cool,  dark  place  in  the  woods  they  pretended 
there  were  Indians;  and  at  the  same  time 
they  kept  a  sharp  eye  out  for  squirrels.  If 
they  had  seen  any,  and  had  a  gun  with 
them,  they  could  have  shot  one  easily,  for 
squirrels  are  not  afraid  of  you  when  you 
are  on  horseback;  and,  as  it  was,  Jake  Mil- 
race  came  pretty  near  killing  a  quail  that 
they  saw  in  the  road  by  a  wheat-field.  He 
dropped  his  bridle  and  took  aim  with  his 
forefinger,  and  pulled  back  his  thumb  like  a 
trigger;  and  if  his  horse  had  not  jumped, 
and  his  finger  had  been  loaded,  he  would 
surely  have  killed  the  quail,  it  was  so  close 
to  him.  They  could  hear  the  bob-whites 
whistling  all  through  the  stubble  and  among 
the  shocks  of  wheat. 

Jake  did  not  know  just  where  Dave  Black's 
farm  was,  but  after  a  while  they  came  to  a 
blacksmith's  shop,  and  the  blacksmith  told 
1 08 


How  Frank  Baker  Spent  the  Fourth 

them  to  take  a  lane  that  they  would  come 
to  on  the  left,  and  then  go  through  a  piece 
of  woods  and  across  a  field  till  they  came 
to  a  creek;  then  ford  the  creek  and  keep 
straight  on,  and  they  would  be  in  sight  of 
the  house.  It  did  not  seem  strange  to  Frank 
that  they  should  be  going  to  visit  a  boy 
without  knowing  where  he  lived,  but  after 
wards  he  was  not  surprised  when  Dave 
Black's  folks  did  not  appear  to  expect  them. 
They  kept  on,  and  did  as  the  blacksmith 
told  them,  and  soon  enough  they  got  to  a  two- 
story  log-cabin,  with  a  man  in  front  of  it 
working  at  a  wheat-fan,  for  it  was  nearly 
time  to  thresh  the  wheat.  The  man  said  he 
was  Dave  Black's  father;  he  did  not  act  as 
if  he  was  very  glad  to  see  them,  but  he  told 
them  to  put  their  horses  in  the  barn,  and  he 
said  that  Dave  was  out  in  the  pasture  haul 
ing  rails. 

Frank  thought  that  was  a  queer  way  of 
spending  the  Fourth  of  July,  but  he  did  not 
say  anything,  and  on  their  way  out  to  the 
pasture  Jake  explained  that  Dave's  father 
was  British,  and  did  not  believe  much  in 
109 


The   Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

the  Fourth  of  July,  anyway.  They  found 
Dave  easily  enough,  and  he  answered  Jake's 
"Hello!"  with  another  when  the  boys  came 
up.  He  had  a  two-horse  wagon,  and  he  was 
loading  it  with  rails  from  a  big  pile;  there 
were  two  dogs  with  him,  and  when  they 
saw  the  boys  they  came  towards  them  snarl 
ing  and  ruffling  the  hair  on  their  backs. 
Jake  said  not  to  mind  them — they  would 
not  bite;  but  they  snuffed  so  close  to  Frank's 
bare  legs  that  he  wished  Dave  would  call 
them  off.  They  slunk  away,  though,  when 
they  heard  him  speak  to  the  boys ;  and  then 
Jake  Milrace  told  Dave  Black  who  Frank 
was,  and  they  began  to  feel  acquainted, 
especially  when  Jake  said  they  had  come  to 
spend  the  Fourth  of  July  with  Dave. 

He  said,  "First  rate,"  and  he  explained 
that  he  had  his  foot  tied  up  the  way  they 
saw  because  he  had  a  stone-bruise  which  he 
had  got  the  first  day  he  began  to  go  bare 
foot  in  the  spring;  but  now  it  was  better. 
He  said  there  was  a  bully  swimming-hole 
in  the  creek,  and  he  would  show  them  where 
it  was  as  soon  as  he  had  got  done  hauling 
no 


How  Frank  Baker  Spent  the  Fourth 

his  rails.  The  boys  took  that  for  a  kind  of 
hint,  and  they  pulled  off  their  roundabouts 
and  set  to  work  with  him. 

Frank  thought  it  was  not  exactly  like  the 
Fourth,  but  he  did  not  say  anything,  and 
they  kept  loading  up  the  rails  and  hauling 
them  to  the  edge  of  the  field  where  Dave's 
father  was  going  to  build  the  fence,  and 
then  unloading  them,  and  going  back  to 
the  pile  for  more.  It  seemed  to  Frank  that 
there  were  about  a  thousand  rails  in  that 
pile,  and  they  were  pretty  heavy  ones — oak 
and  hickory  and  walnut — and  you  had  to 
be  careful  how  you  handled  them,  or  you 
would  get  your  hands  stuck  full  of  splin 
ters.  He  wondered  what  Jake  Milrace  was 
thinking,  and  whether  it  was  the  kind  of 
Fourth  he  had  expected  to  have;  but  Jake 
did  not  say  anything,  and  he  hated  to  ask 
him.  Sometimes  it  appeared  to  Frank  that 
sawing  wood  was  nothing  to  it;  but  they 
kept  on  loading  rails,  and  unloading  them 
in  piles  about  ten  feet  apart,  where  they 
were  wanted;  and  then  going  back  to  the 
big  pile  for  more.  They  worked  away  in  the 
in 


The   Flight    of  Pony   Baker 

blazing  sun  till  the  sweat  poured  off  their 
faces,  and  Frank  kept  thinking  what  a 
splendid  time  the  fellows  wrere  having  with 
pistols  and  shooting  -  crackers  up  in  the 
Boy's  Town;  but  still  he  did  not  say  any 
thing,  and  pretty  soon  he  had  his  reward. 
When  they  got  half  down  through  the  rail- 
pile  they  came  to  a  bumblebees'  nest,  which 
the  dogs  thought  was  a  rat-hole  at  first. 
One  of  them  poked  his  nose  into  it,  but  he 
pulled  it  out  quicker  than  wink  and  ran 
off  howling  and  pawing  his  face  and  rubbing 
his  head  in  the  ground  or  against  the  boys' 
legs.  Even  when  the  dogs  found  out  that 
it  was  not  rats  they  did  not  show  any  sense. 
As  soon  as  they  rubbed  a  bee  off  they  would 
come  yelping  and  howling  back  for  more; 
and  hopping  round  and  barking;  and  then 
when  they  got  another  bee,  or  maybe  a  half- 
dozen  (for  the  bees  did  not  always  fight 
fair),  they  would  streak  off  again  and  jump 
into  the  air,  and  roll  on  the  ground  till  the 
boys  almost  killed  themselves  laughing. 

The  boys  went  into  the  woods,  and  got  paw 
paw  branches,  and  came  back  and  fought 

112 


How  Frank  Baker  Spent  the  Fourth 

the  bumblebees  till  they  drove  them  off. 
It  was  just  like  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill; 
but  Frank  did  not  say  so,  because  Dave's 
father  was  British,  till  Dave  said  it  himself, 
and  then  they  all  pretended  the  bees  were 
Mexicans ;  it  was  just  a  little  while  after  the 
Mexican  War.  When  they  drove  the  bees 
off,  they  dug  their  nest  out;  it  was  beauti 
fully  built  in  regular  cells  of  gray  paper, 
and  there  was  a  little  honey  in  it;  about  a 
spoonful  for  each  boy. 

Frank  was  glad  that  he  had  not  let  out 
his  disappointment  with  the  kind  of  Fourth 
they  were  having;  and  just  then  the  horn 
sounded  from  the  house  for  dinner,  and  the 
boys  all  got  into  the  wagon,  and  rattled  off 
to  the  barn.  They  put  out  the  horses  and 
fed  them,  and  as  soon  as  they  could  wash 
themselves  at  the  rain -barrel  behind  the 
house,  they  went  in  and  sat  down  with  the 
family  at  dinner.  It  was  a  farmer's  dinner, 
as  it  used  to  be  in  southern  Ohio  fifty  years 
ago :  a  deep  dish  of  fried  salt  pork  swimming 
in  its  own  fat,  plenty  of  shortened  biscuit 
and  warm  green -apple  sauce,  with  good 
8 


The    Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

butter.  The  Boy's  Town  boys  did  not  like 
the  looks  of  the  fat  pork,  but  they  were  wolf- 
hungry,  and  the  biscuit  were  splendid.  In 
the  middle  of  the  table  there  was  a  big  crock 
of  buttermilk,  all  cold  and  dripping  from  the 
spring-house  where  it  had  been  standing  in 
the  running  water ;  then  there  was  a  hot  apple- 
pie  right  out  of  the  oven;  and  they  made  a 
pretty  fair  meal,  after  all. 

After  dinner  they  hauled  more  rails,  and 
when  they  had  hauled  all  the  rails  there 
were,  they  started  for  the  swimming  -  hole 
in  the  creek.  On  the  way  they  came  to  a 
mulberry-tree  in  the  edge  of  the  woods- 
pasture,  and  it  was  so  full  of  berries  and 
they  were  so  ripe  that  the  grass  which  the 
cattle  had  cropped  short  was  fairly  red  under 
the  tree.  The  boys  got  up  into  the  tree 
and  gorged  themselves  among  the  yellow- 
hammers  and  woodpeckers;  and  Frank 
and  Jake  kept  holloing  out  to  each  other 
how  glad  they  were  they  had  come;  but 
Dave  kept  quiet,  and  told  them  to  wait  till 
they  came  to  the  swimming-hole. 

It  was  while  they  were  in  the  tree  that 
114 


How  Frank  Baker  Spent  the  Fourth 

something  happened  which  happened  four 
times  in  all  that  day,  if  it  really  happened : 
nobody  could  say  afterwards  whether  it  had 
or  not.  Frank  was  reaching  out  for  a  place 
in  the  tree  where  the  berries  seemed  thicker 
than  anywhere  else,  when  a  strong  blaze 
of  light  flashed  into  his  eyes,  and  blinded 
him. 

"Oh,  hello,  Dave  Black!"  he  holloed. 
"That's  mean!  What  are  you  throwin' 
that  light  in  my  face  for?" 

But  he  laughed  at  the  joke,  and  he  laugh 
ed  more  when  Dave  shouted  back,  "I  ain't 
throwin'  no  light  in  your  face." 

"Yes,  you  are;  you've  got  a  piece  of  look- 
in '-glass,  and  you're  flashin'  it  in  my  face." 

"Wish  I  may  die,  if  I  have,"  said  Dave, 
so  seriously  that  Frank  had  to  believe  him. 

"Well,  then,  Jake  Milrace  has." 

"I  hain't,  any  such  thing,"  said  Jake, 
and  then  Dave  Black  roared  back,  laugh 
ing  :  "  Oh,  I'll  tell  you !  It's  one  of  the  pieces 
of  tin  we  strung  along  that  line  in  the  corn 
field  to  keep  the  crows  off,  corn-plantin' 
time." 


The   Flight    of  Pony   Bake* 

The  boys  shouted  together  at  the  joke  on 
Frank,  and  Dave  parted  the  branches  for  a 
better  look  at  the  corn-field. 

"Well,  well!  Heigh  there  !"  he  called 
towards  the  field.  "Oh,  he's  gone  now!"  he 
said  to  the  other  boys,  craning  their  necks 
out  to  see,  too.  "  But  he  was  doing  it,  Frank. 
If  I  could  ketch  that  feller!" 

"Somebody  you  know?  Let's  get  him 
to  come  along,"  said  Jake  and  Frank,  one 
after  the  other. 

"  I  couldn't  tell,"  said  Dave.  "  He  slipped 
into  the  woods  when  he  heard  me  holler. 
If  it's  anybody  I  know,  he'll  come  out  again. 
Don't  seem  to  notice  him;  that's  the  best 
way." 

For  a  while,  though,  they  stopped  to  look, 
now  and  then;  but  no  more  flashes  came 
from  the  corn-field,  and  the  boys  went  on 
cramming  themselves  with  berries;  they  all 
said  they  had  got  to  stop,  but  they  went  on 
till  Dave  said :  "  I  don't  believe  it's  going  to 
do  us  any  good  to  go  in  swimming  if  we  eat 
too  many  of  these  mulberries.  I  reckon  we 
better  quit,  now." 

116 


How  Frank  Baker  Spent  the  Fourth 

The  others  said  they  reckoned  so,  too, 
and  they  all  got  down  from  the  tree,  and 
started  for  the  swimming-hole.  They  had 
to  go  through  a  piece  of  woods  to  get  to 
it,  and  in  the  shadow  of  the  trees  they  did 
not  notice  that  a  storm  was  coming  up  till 
they  heard  it  thunder.  By  that  time  they 
were  on  the  edge  of  the  woods,  and  there 
came  a  flash  of  lightning  and  a  loud  thun 
der-clap,  and  the  rain  began  to  fall  in  big 
drops.  The  boys  saw  a  barn  in  the  field 
they  had  reached,  and  they  ran  for  it; 
and  they  had  just  got  into  it  when  the 
rain  came  down  with  all  its  might.  Sud 
denly  Jake  said:  "111  tell  you  what!  Let's 
take  off  our  clothes  and  have  a  shower- 
bath!"  And  in  less  than  a  minute  they  had 
their  clothes  off,  and  were  out  in  the  full 
pour,  dancing  up  and  down,  and  yelling 
like  Indians.  That  made  them  think  of 
playing  Indians,  and  they  pretended  the 
barn  was  a  settler's  cabin,  and  they  were 
stealing  up  on  it  through  the  tall  shocks  of 
wheat.  They  captured  it  easily,  and  they 
said  if  the  lightning  would  only  strike  it 
117 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Baker 

and  set  it  on  fire  so  it  would  seem  as  if  the 
Indians  had  done  it,  it  would  be  great;  but 
the  storm  was  going  round,  and  they  had  to 
be  satisfied  with  being  settlers,  turn  about, 
and  getting  scalped. 

It  was  easy  to  scalp  Frank,  because  he 
wore  his  hair  long,  as  the  town  boys  liked 
to  do  in  those  days,  but  Jake  lived  with 
his  sister,  and  he  had  to  do  as  she  said. 
She  said  a  boy  had  no  business  with  long 
hair;  and  she  had  lately  cropped  his  close 
to  his  skull.  Dave's  father  cut  his  hair 
round  the  edges  of  a  bowl,  which  he  had 
put  on  Dave's  head  for  a  pattern;  the  other 
boys  could  get  a  pretty  good  grip  of  it,  if 
they  caught  it  on  top,  where  the  scalp-lock 
belongs;  but  Dave  would  duck  and  dodge 
so  that  they  could  hardly  get  their  hands  on 
it.  All  at  once  they  heard  him  call  out  from 
around  the  corner  of  the  barn,  where  he  had 
gone  to  steal  up  on  them,  when  it  was  their 
turn  to  be  settlers :  "  Aw,  now,  Jake  Milrace, 
that  ain't  fair!  I'm  an  Indian,  now.  You 
let  go  my  hair." 

"  Who's  touchin'  your  old  hair?"  Jake 
118 


How  Frank  Baker  Spent  the  Fourth 

shouted  back,  from  the  inside  of  the  barn. 
"You  must  be  crazy.  Hurry  up,  if  you're 
ever  goin'  to  attack  us.  I  want  to  get  out 
in  the  rain,  myself,  awhile/' 

Frank  was  outside,  pretending  to  be  at 
work  in  the  field,  and  waiting  for  the  Ind 
ians  to  creep  on  him,  and  when  Jake  shouted 
for  Dave  to  hurry,  he  looked  over  his  shoul 
der  and  saw  a  white  figure,  naked  like  his 
own,  flit  round  the  left-hand  corner  of  the 
barn.  Then  he  had  to  stoop  over,  so  that 
Dave  could  tomahawk  him  easily,  and  he 
did  not  see  anything  more,  but  Jake  yelled 
from  the  barn:  "Oh,  you  got  that  fellow 
with  you,  have  you?  Then  he's  got  to  be 
settler  next  time.  Come  on,  now.  Oh,  do 
hurry  up!" 

Frank  raised  his  head  to  see  the  other 
boy,  but  there  was  only  Dave  Black,  coming 
round  the  right-hand  corner  of  the  barn. 

"  You're  crazy  yourself,  Jake.  There  ain't 
nobody  here  but  me  and  Frank." 

"  There  is,  too ! "  Jake  retorted.  "  Or  there 
was,  half  a  second  ago." 

But  Dave  was  busy  stealing  on  Frank, 
119 


The  Flight  of  Pony  Baker 

who  was  bending  over,  pretending  to  hoe, 
and  after  he  had  tomahawked  Frank,  he 
gave  the  scalp-halloo,  and  Jake  came  run 
ning  out  of  the  barn,  and  had  to  be  chased 
round  it  twice,  so  that  he  could  fall  breath 
less  on  his  own  threshold,  and  be  scalped 
in  full  sight  of  his  family.  Then  Dave 
pretended  to  be  a  war -party  of  Wyandots, 
and  he  gathered  up  sticks,  and  pretended 
to  set  the  barn  on  fire.  By  this  time  Frank 
and  Jake  had  come  to  life,  and  were  Wyan 
dots,  too,  and  they  all  joined  hands  and 
danced  in  front  of  the  barn. 

"There!  There  he  is  again  !"  shouted 
Jake.  "Who's  crazy  now,  I  should  like  to 
know?" 

"Where?  Where?"  yelled  both  the  other 
boys. 

"There!  Right  in  the  barn  door.  Or  he 
was,  quarter  of  a  second  ago,"  said  Jake, 
and  they  all  dropped  one  another's  hands, 
and  rushed  into  the  barn  and  began  to 
search  it. 

They  could  not  find  anybody,  and  Dave 
Black  said:  "Well,  he's  the  quickest  feller! 
120 


How  Frank  Baker  Spent  the  Fourth 

Must  'a'  got  up  into  the  mow,  and  jumped 
out  of  the  window,  and  broke  for  the  woods 
while  we  was  lookin'  down  here.  But  if 
I  get  my  hands  onto  him,  oncetl" 

They  all  talked  and  shouted  and  quar 
relled  and  laughed  at  once;  but  they  had  to 
give  the  other  fellow  up;  he  had  got  away 
for  that  time,  and  they  ran  out  into  the 
rain  again  to  let  it  wash  off  the  dust  and 
chaff,  which  they  had  got  all  over  them  in 
their  search.  The  rain  felt  so  good  and 
cool  that  they  stood  still  and  took  it  with 
out  playing  any  more,  and  talked  quietly. 
Dave  decided  that  the  fellow  who  had  given 
them  the  slip  was  a  new  boy  whose  folks 
had  come  into  the  neighborhood  since  school 
had  let  out  in  the  spring,  so  that  he  had 
not  got  acquainted  yet;  but  Dave  allowed 
that  he  would  teach  him  a  few  tricks  as 
good  as  his  own  when  he  got  at  him. 

The  storm  left  a  solid  bank  of  clouds  in 
the  east  for  a  while  after  it  was  all  blue  in 
the  western  half  of  the  sky,  and  a  rainbow 
came  out  against  the  clouds.  It  looked 
so  firm  and  thick  that  Dave  said  you  could 
121 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Baker 

cut  it  with  a  scythe.  It  seemed  to  come 
solidly  down  to  the  ground  in  the  woods  in 
front  of  the  hay-mow  window,  and  the  boys 
said  it  would  be  easy  to  get  the  crock  of 
gold  at  the  end  of  it  if  they  were  only  in 
the  woods.  "I'll  bet  that  feller's  helpin' 
himself/'  said  Dave,  and  they  began  to 
wonder  how  many  dollars  a  crock  of  gold 
was  worth,  anyhow;  they  decided  about  a 
million.  Then  they  wondered  how  much 
of  a  crock  full  of  gold  a  boy  could  get  into 
his  pockets;  and  they  all  laughed  when 
Jake  said  he  reckoned  it  would  depend  upon 
the  size  of  the  crock.  "I  don't  believe  that 
fellow  could  carry  much  of  it  away  if  he 
hain't  got  more  on  than  he  had  in  front  of 
the  barn."  That  put  Frank  in  mind  of  the 
puzzle  about  the  three  men  that  found  a 
treasure  in  the  road  when  they  were  travel 
ling  together:  the  blind  man  saw  it,  and 
the  man  without  arms  picked  it  up,  and  the 
naked  man  put  it  in  his  pocket.  It  was 
the  first  time  Dave  had  heard  the  puzzle, 
and  he  asked,  "Well,  what's  the  answer?" 
But  before  Frank  could  tell  him,  Jake  started 
122 


How  Frank  Baker  Spent  the  Fourth 

up  and  pointed  to  the  end  of  the  rainbow, 
where  it  seemed  to  go  into  the  ground  against 
the  woods. 

"Oh!  look!  look!"  he  panted  out,  and 
they  all  looked,  but  no  one  could  see  any 
thing  except  Jake.  It  made  him  mad. 
"Why,  you  must  be  blind!"  he  shouted, 
and  he  kept  pointing.  "  Don't  you  see  him? 
There,  there!  Oh,  now,  the  rainbow's  go 
ing  out,  and  you  can't  see  him  any  more. 
He's  gone  into  the  woods  again.  Well,  I 
don't  know  what  your  eyes  are  good  for, 
anyway/' 

He  tried  to  tell  them  what  he  had  seen; 
he  could  only  make  out  that  it  must  be  the 
same  boy,  but  now  he  had  his  clothes  on: 
white  linen  pantaloons  and  roundabout,  like 
what  you  had  on  May  day,  or  the  Fourth 
if  you  were  going  to  the  Sunday-school 
picnic.  Dave  wanted  him  to  tell  what  he 
looked  like,  but  Jake  could  not  say  anything 
except  that  he  was  very  smiling-looking, 
and  seemed  as  if  he  would  like  to  be  with 
him;  Jake  said  he  was  just  going  to  hollo 
for  him  to  come  over  when  the  rainbow  be- 
123 


The   Flight   of  Pony   Baker 

gan  to  go  out;  and  then  the  fellow  slipped 
back  into  the  woods ;  it  was  more  like  melt 
ing  into  the  woods. 

"  And  how  far  off  do  you  think  you  could 
see  a  boy  smile ?"  Dave  asked,  scornfully. 

"How  far  off  can  you  say  a  rainbow  is?" 
Jake  retorted. 

"  I  can  say  how  far  off  that  piece  of  woods 
is/'  said  Dave,  with  a  laugh.  He  got  to 
his  feet,  and  began  to  pull  at  the  other  boys, 
to  make  them  get  up.  "Come  along,  if 
you're  ever  goin'  to  the  swimmin'-hole. " 

The  sun  was  bright  and  hot,  and  the  boys 
left  the  barn,  and  took  across  the  field  to 
the  creek.  The  storm  must  have  been  very 
heavy,  for  the  creek  was  rushing  along  bank- 
full,  and  there  was  no  sign  left  of  Dave's 
swimming-hole.  But  they  had  had  such  a 
glorious  shower-bath  that  they  did  not  want 
to  go  in  swimming,  anyway,  and  they  stood 
and  watched  the  yellow  water  pouring  over 
the  edge  of  a  mill-dam  that  was  there,  till 
Dave  happened  to  think  of  building  a  raft 
and  going  out  on  the  dam.  Jake  said, 
"First  rate!"  and  they  all  rushed  up  to  a 
124 


"  VERY  SMIL1NG-LOOKING  ' 


How  Frank  Baker  Spent  the  Fourth 

place  where  there  were  some  boards  on  the 
bank ;  and  they  got  pieces  of  old  rope  at  the 
mill,  and  tied  the  boards  together,  till  they 
had  a  good  raft,  big  enough  to  hold  them, 
and  then  they  pushed  it  into  the  water  and 
got  on  it.  They  said  they  were  on  the  Ohio 
River,  and  going  from  Cincinnati  to  Louis 
ville.  Dave  had  a  long  pole  to  push  with, 
like  the  boatmen  on  the  keel-boats  in  the 
early  times,  and  Jake  had  a  board  to  steer 
with;  Frank  had  another  board  to  paddle 
with,  on  the  other  side  of  the  raft  from  Dave ; 
and  so  they  set  on  their  journey. 

The  dam  was  a  wide,  smooth  sheet  of 
water,  with  trees  growing  round  the  edge, 
and  some  of  them  hanging  so  low  over  it 
that  they  almost  touched  it.  The  boys  made 
trips  back  and  forth  across  the  dam,  and 
to  and  from  the  edge  of  the  fall,  till  they 
got  tired  of  it,  and  they  were  wanting  some 
thing  to  happen,  when  Dave  stuck  his  pole 
deep  into  the  muddy  bottom,  and  set  his 
shoulder  hard  against  the  top  of  the  pole, 
with  a  "Here  she  goes,  boys,  over  the 
Falls  of  the  Ohio !"  and  he  ran  along 
125 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Bake? 

the  edge  of  the   raft  from  one   end  to  the 
other. 

Frank  and  Dave  had  both  straightened 
up  to  watch  him.  At  the  stern  of  the  raft 
Dave  tried  to  pull  up  his  pole  for  another 
good  push,  but  it  stuck  fast  in  the  mud  at 
the  bottom  of  the  dam,  and  before  Dave 
knew  what  he  was  about,  the  raft  shot  from 
under  his  feet,  and  he  went  overboard  with 
his  pole  in  his  hand,  as  if  he  were  taking  a 
flying  leap  with  it.  The  next  minute  he 
dropped  into  the  water  heels  first,  and  went 
down  out  of  sight.  He  came  up  blowing 
water  from  his  mouth,  and  holloing  and 
laughing,  and  took  after  the  raft,  where  the 
other  fellows  were  jumping  up  and  down, 
and  bending  back  and  forth,  and  screaming 
and  yelling  at  the  way  he  looked  hurrying 
after  his  pole,  and  then  dangling  in  the  air, 
and  now  showing  his  black  head  in  the 
water  like  a  musk-rat  swimming  for  its  hole. 
They  were  having  such  a  good  time  mock 
ing  him  that  they  did  not  notice  how  his 
push  had  sent  the  raft  swiftly  in  under  the 
trees  by  the  shore,  and  the  first  thing  they 
126 


How  Frank  Baker  Spent  the  Fourth 

knew,  one  of  the  low  branches  caught  them, 
and  scraped  them  both  off  the  raft  into  the 
water,  almost  on  top  of  Dave.  Then  it  was 
Dave's  turn  to  laugh,  and  he  began :  "  What's 
the  matter,  boys?  Want  to  help  find  the 
other  end  of  that  pole?" 

Jake  was  not  under  the  water  any  longer 
than  Dave  had  been,  but  Frank  did  not 
come  up  so  soon.  They  looked  among  the 
brush  by  the  shore,  to  see  if  he  was  hiding 
there  and  fooling  them,  but  they  could  not 
find  him.  "  He's  stuck  in  some  snag  at  the 
bottom,"  said  Dave;  "we  got  to  dive  for 
him";  but  just  then  Frank  came  up,  and 
swam  feebly  for  the  shore.  He  crawled  out 
of  the  water,  and  after  he  got  his  breath, 
he  said,  "I  got  caught,  down  there,  in  the 
top  of  an  old  tree." 

"Didn't  I  tell  you  so?"  Dave  shouted  into 
Jake's  ear. 

"Why,  Jake  was  there  till  I  got  loose," 
said  Frank,  looking  stupidly  at  him. 

"No,  I  wasn't,"  said  Jake.  "I  was  up 
long  ago,  and  I  was  just  goin'  to  dive  for 
you;  so  was  Dave." 

127 


The   Flight   of  Pony  Baker 

"Then  it  was  that  other  fellow,"  said 
Frank.  "I  thought  it  didn't  look  over 
much  like  Jake,  anyway." 

"Oh,  pshaw!"  Dave  jeered.  "How  could 
you  tell,  in  that  muddy  water?" 

"I  don't  know,"  Frank  answered.  "It 
was  all  light  round  him.  Looked  like  he 
had  a  piece  of  the  rainbow  on  him,  or  fox 
fire." 

"I  reckon  if  I  find  him,"  said  Dave,  "I'll 
take  his  piece  of  rainbow  off'n  him  pretty 
quick.  That's  the  fourth  time  that  feller's 
fooled  us  to-day.  Where  d'you  s'pose  he 
came  up?  Oh,  I  know!  He  got  out  on  the 
other  side  under  them  trees,  while  we  was 
huntin'  for  Frank,  and  not  noticin'.  How'd 
he  look,  anyway?" 

"I  don't  know;  I  just  saw  him  half  a 
second.  Kind  of  smiling,  and  like  he  want 
ed  to  play." 

"Well,  I  know  him,"  said  Dave.  "It's 
the  new  boy,  and  the  next  time  I  see  him — 
Oh,  hello!  There  goes  our  raft!" 

It  was  drifting  slowly  down  towards  the 
edge  of  the  dam,  and  the  boys  all  three 
128 


How  Frank  Baker  Spent  the  Fourth 

plunged  into  the  water  again,  and  swam 
out  to  it,  and  climbed  up  on  it. 

They  had  the  greatest  kind  of  a  time, 
and  when  they  had  played  castaway  sailors, 
Frank  arid  Jake  wanted  to  send  the  raft 
over  the  edge  of  the  dam;  but  Dave  said  it 
might  get  into  the  head-race  of  the  mill 
and  tangle  itself  up  in  the  wheel,  and  spoil 
the  wheel. 

So  they  took  the  raft  apart  and  carried 
the  boards  on  shore,  and  then  tried  to  think 
what  they  would  do  next.  The  first  thing 
was  to  take  off  their  clothes  and  see  about 
drying  them.  But  they  had  no  patience 
for  that;  and  so  they  wrung  them  out  as 
dry  as  they  could  and  put  them  on  again; 
they  had  left  their  roundabouts  at  Dave's 
house,  anyway,  and  so  had  nothing  on  but  a 
shirt  and  trousers  apiece.  The  sun  was  out 
hot  after  the  rain,  and  their  clothes  were 
almost  dry  "by  the  time  they  got  to  Dave's 
house.  They  went  with  him  to  the  woods- 
pasture  on  the  way,  and  helped  him  drive 
home  the  cows,  and  they  wanted  him  to 
get  his  mother  to  make  his  father  let  him 
9  129 


The   Flight   of  Pony   Baker 

go  up  to  the  Boy's  Town  with  them  and 
see  the  fireworks;  but  he  said  it  would  be 
no  use;  and  then  they  understood  that  if 
a  man  was  British,  of  course  he  would  not 
want  his  boy  to  celebrate  the  Fourth  of 
July  by  going  to  the  fireworks.  They  felt 
sorry  for  Dave,  but  they  both  told  him  that 
they  had  had  more  fun  than  they  ever  had 
in  their  lives  before,  and  they  were  coming 
the  next  Fourth  and  going  to  bring  their 
guns  with  them.  Then  they  could  shoot 
quails  or  squirrels,  if  they  saw  any,  and 
the  firing  would  celebrate  the  Fourth  at  the 
same  time,  and  his  father  could  not  find 
any  fault. 

It  seemed  to  Frank  that  it  was  awful  to 
have  a  father  that  was  British;  but  when 
they  got  to  Dave's  house,  and  his  father 
asked  them  how  they  had  spent  the  after 
noon,  he  did  not  seem  to  be  so  very  bad. 
He  asked  them  whether  they  had  got  caught 
in  the  storm,  and  if  that  was  what  made 
their  clothes  wet,  and  when  they  told  him 
what  had  happened,  he  sat  down  on  the 
wood-pile  and  laughed  till  he  shook  all  over. 
130 


How  Frank  Baker  Spent  the  Fourth 

Then  Frank  and  Jake  thought  they  had 
better  be  going  home,  but  Dave's  mother 
would  not  let  them  start  without  something 
to  eat ;  and  she  cut  them  each  a  slice  of  bread 
the  whole  width  and  length  of  the  loaf,  and 
spread  the  slices  with  butter,  and  then  apple- 
butter,  and  then  brown  sugar.  The  boys 
thought  they  were  not  hungry,  but  when 
they  began  to  eat  they  found  out  that  they 
were,  and  before  they  knew  it  they  had  eaten 
the  slices  all  up.  Dave's  mother  said  they 
must  come  and  see  Dave  again  some  time, 
and  she  acted  real  clever ;  she  was  an  Amer 
ican,  anyway. 

They  got  their  horses  and  started  home. 
It  was  almost  sundown  now,  and  they 
heard  the  turtle-doves  cooing  in  the  woods, 
and  the  bob -whites  whistling  from  the 
stubble,  and  there  were  so  many  squirrels 
among  the  trees  in  the  woods-pastures,  and 
on  the  fences,  that  Frank  could  hardly  get 
Jake  along;  and  if  it  had  not  been  for  Jake's 
horse,  that  ran  whenever  Frank  whipped  up 
his  pony,  they  would  not  have  got  home  till 
dark.  They  smelt  ham  frying  in  some  of 


The    Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

the  houses  they  passed,  and  that  made  them 
awfully  hungry;  one  place  there  was  coffee, 
too. 

When  they  reached  Frank's  house  he 
found  that  his  mother  had  kept  supper  hot 
for  him,  and  she  came  out  and  said  Jake 
must  come  in  with  him,  if  his  family  would 
not  be  uneasy  about  him ;  and  Jake  said  he 
did  not  believe  they  would.  He  tied  his 
horse  to  the  outside  of  the  cow-house,  and 
he  came  in,  and  Frank's  mother  gave  them 
as  much  baked  chicken  as  they  could  hold, 
with  hot  bread  to  sop  in  the  gravy;  and  she 
had  kept  some  coffee  hot  for  Frank,  so  that 
they  made  another  good  meal.  They  told 
her  what  a  bully  time  they  had  had,  and 
how  they  had  fallen  into  the  dam;  but  she 
did  not  seem  to  think  it  was  funny;  she 
said  it  was  a  good  thing  they  were  not  all 
drowned,  and  she  believed  they  had  taken 
their  deaths  of  cold,  anyway.  Frank  was 
afraid  she  was  going  to  make  him  go  up 
stairs  and  change  his  clothes,  when  he 
heard  the  boys  begin  to  sound  their  call 
of  "Ee-o-wee"  at  the  front  door,  and  he 
132 


How  Frank  Baker  Spent  the  Fourth 

and  Jake  snatched  their  hats  and  ran  out. 
There  was  a  lot  of  boys  at  the  gate;  Hen 
Billard  was  there,  and  Archy  Hawkins  and 
Jim  Leonard;  there  were  some  little  fel 
lows,  and  Frank's  cousin  Pony  was  there; 
he  said  his  mother  had  said  he  might  stay 
till  his  father  came  for  him. 

Hen  Billard  had  his  thumb  tied  up  from 
firing  too  big  a  load  out  of  his  brass  pistol. 
The  pistol  burst,  and  the  barrel  was  all 
curled  back  like  a  dandelion  stem  in  water; 
he  had  it  in  his  pocket  to  show.  Archy 
Hawkins's  face  was  full  of  little  blue  specks 
from  pouring  powder  on  a  coal  and  getting 
it  flashed  up  into  his  face  when  he  was  blow 
ing  the  coal;  some  of  his  eye-winkers  were 
singed  off.  Jim  Leonard  had  a  rag  round 
his  hand,  and  he  said  a  whole  pack  of  shoot 
ing-crackers  had  gone  off  in  it  before  he 
could  throw  them  away,  and  burned  the  skin 
off;  the  fellows  dared  him  to  let  them  see  it, 
but  he  would  not;  and  then  they  mocked 
him.  They  all  said  there  had  never  been 
such  a  Fourth  of  July  in  the  Boy's  Town 
before;  and  Frank  and  Jake  let  them  brag 
133 


The   Flight   of  Pony  Baker 

as  much  as  they  wanted  to,  and  when  the 
fellows  got  tired,  and  asked  them  what  they 
had  done  at  Pawpaw  Bottom,  and  they  said, 
"Oh,  nothing  much;  just  helped  Dave  Black 
haul  rails/'  they  set  up  a  jeer  that  you  could 
hear  a  mile. 

Then  Jake  said,  as  if  he  just  happened 
to  think  of  it,  "And  fought  bumblebees/' 

And  Frank  put  in,  "And  took  a  shower- 
bath  in  the  thunder-storm/' 

And  Jake  said,  "And  eat  mulberries/' 

And  Frank  put  in  again,  "And  built  a 
raft." 

And  Jake  said,  "And  Dave  got  pulled 
into  the  mill-dam." 

And  Frank  wound  up,  "And  Jake  and  I 
got  swept  overboard." 

By  that  time  the  fellows  began  to  feel 
pretty  small,  and  they  crowded  round  and 
wanted  to  hear  every  word  about  it.  Then 
Jake  and  Frank  tantalized  them,  and  said 
of  course  it  was  no  Fourth  at  all,  it  was 
only  just  fun,  till  the  fellows  could  not  stand 
it  any  longer,  and  then  Frank  jumped  up 
from  where  he  was  sitting  on  his  front  steps, 
134 


How  Frank  Baker  Spent  the  Fourth 

and  holloed  out,  "I'll  show  you  how  Dave 
looked  when  his  pole  pulled  him  in,"  and 
he  acted  it  all  out  about  Dave's  pole  pulling 
him  into  the  water. 

Jake  waited  till  he  was  done,  and  then 
he  jumped  up  and  said,  "  I'll  show  you  how 
Frank  and  me  looked  when  we  got  swept 
overboard/'  and  he  acted  it  out  about  the 
limb  of  the  tree  scraping  them  off  the  raft 
while  they  were  laughing  at  Dave  and  not 
noticing. 

As  soon  as  they  got  the  boys  to  yelling, 
Jake  and  Frank  both  showed  how  they 
fought  the  bumblebees,  and  how  the  dogs 
got  stung,  and  ran  round  trying  to  rub  the 
bees  off  against  the  ground,  and  your  legs, 
and  everything,  till  the  boys  fell  down  and 
rolled  over,  it  made  them  laugh  so.  Jake 
and  Frank  showed  how  they  ran  out  into 
the  rain  from  the  barn,  and  stood  in  it,  and 
told  how  good  and  cool  it  felt ;  and  they  told 
about  sitting  up  in  the  mulberry-tree,  and 
how  twenty  boys  could  not  have  made  the 
least  hole  in  the  berries.  They  told  about 
the  quails  and  the  squirrels ;  and  they  show- 


The   Flight    of  Pony   Baker 

ed  how  Frank  had  to  keep  whipping  up  his 
pony,  and  how  Jake's  horse  kept  wheeling 
and  running  away;  and  some  of  the  fellows 
said  they  were  going  with  them  the  next 
Fourth. 

Hen  Billard  tried  to  turn  it  off,  and  said : 
"Pshaw!  You  can  have  that  kind  of  a 
Fourth  any  day  in  the  country.  Who's 
going  up  to  the  court-house  yard  to  see  the 
fireworks?" 

He  and  Archy  Hawkins  and  the  big  boys 
ran  off,  whooping,  and  the  little  fellows 
felt  awfully,  because  their  mothers  had 
said  they  must  not  go.  Just  then,  Pony 
Baker's  father  came  for  him,  and  he  said 
he  guessed  they  could  see  the  fireworks 
from  Frank's  front  steps;  and  Jake  stayed 
with  Frank,  and  Frank's  father  came  out, 
and  his  aunt  and  mother  leaned  out  of  the 
window,  and  watched,  while  the  Roman 
candles  shot  up,  and  the  rockets  climbed 
among  the  stars. 

They  were  all  so  much  taken  up  in  watch 
ing  that  they  did  not  notice  one  of  the  neigh 
bor  women  who  had  come  over  from  her 

136 


How  Frank  Baker  Spent  the  Fourth 

house  and  joined  them,  till  Mrs.  Baker  hap 
pened  to  see  her,  and  called  out:  "Why, 
Mrs.  Fogle,  where  did  you  spring  from? 
Do  come  in  here  with  Manda  and  me.  I 
didn't  see  you,  in  your  black  dress/' 

"No,  I'm  going  right  back/'  said  Mrs. 
Fogel.  "I  just  come  over  a  minute  to  see 
the  fireworks  —  for  Wilford ;  you  can't  see 
them  from  my  side." 

"Oh/'  said  Mrs.  Baker,  softly.  "Well, 
I'm  real  glad  you  came.  You  ought  to 
have  heard  the  boys,  here,  telling  about 
the  kind  of  Fourth  they  had  at  Pawpaw 
Bottom.  I  don't  know  when  I've  laughed 
so  much." 

"Well,  I  reckon  it's  just  as  well  I  wasn't 
here.  I  couldn't  have  helped  in  the  laughing 
much.  It  seems  pretty  hard  my  Wilford 
couldn't  been  having  a  good  time  with  the 
rest  to-day.  He  was  always  such  a  Fourth- 
of-July  boy." 

"  But  he's  happy  where  he  is,  Mrs.  Fogle," 
said  Mrs.  Baker,  gently. 

"Well,    I    know    he'd    give    anything    to 
been  here  with  the  boys  to-day —    I  don't 
137 


The   Flight   of  Pony   Baker 

care  where  he  is.  And  he's  been  here,  too; 
I  just  know  he  has;  I've  felt  him,  all  day 
long,  teasing  at  me  to  let  him  go  off  with 
your  Frank  and  Jake,  here;  he  just  fairly 
loved  to  be  with  them,  and  he  never  done 
any  harm.  Oh,  my,  my!  I  don't  see  how 
I  used  to  deny  him." 

She  put  up  her  apron  to  her  face,  and 
ran  sobbing  across  the  street  again  to  her 
own  house;  they  heard  the  door  close  after 
her  in  the  dark. 

"I  declare,"  said  Mrs.  Baker,  "I've  got 
half  a  mind  to  go  over  to  her." 

"Better  not,"  said  Pony  Baker's  father. 

"  Well,  I  reckon  you're  right,  Henry,"  Mrs. 
Baker  assented. 

They  did  not  talk  gayly  any  more;  when 
the  last  rocket  had  climbed  the  sky,  Jake 
Milrace  rose  and  said  in  a  whisper  he  must 
be  going. 

After  he  was  gone,  Frank  told,  as  if  he 
had  just  thought  of  it,  about  the  boy  that 
had  fooled  them  so,  at  Pawpaw  Bottom ;  and 
he  was  surprised  at  the  way  his  mother  and 
his  Uncle  Henry  questioned  him  up  about  it. 

138 


How  Frank  Baker  Spent  the  Fourth 

"Well,  now/'  she  said,  "I'm  glad  poor 
Mrs.  Fogle  wasn't  here,  or — "  She  stopped, 
and  her  brother-in-law  rose,  with  the  hand  of 
his  sleepy  little  son  in  his  own. 

"I  think  Pony  had  better  say  good-night 
now,  while  he  can.  Frank,  you've  had  a  re 
markable  Fourth.  Good-night,  all.  I  wish 
I  had  spent  the  day  at  Pawpaw  Bottom 
myself." 

Before  they  slept  that  night,  Pony's  moth 
er  said :  "  Well,  I'd  just  as  soon  you'd  kept 
that  story  to  yourself  till  morning,  Henry. 
I  shall  keep  thinking  about  it,  and  not  sleep 
a  wink.  How  in  the  world  do  you  account 
for  it?" 

"I  don't  account  for  it,"  said  Pony's  fa 
ther. 

"Now,  that  won't  do!  What  do  you 
think?" 

"Well,  if  it  was  one  boy  that  saw  the 
fourth  boy  it  might  be  a  simple  case  of 
lying." 

"Frank  Baker  never  told  a  lie  in  his  life. 
He  couldn't." 

"Perhaps  Jake  could,  or  Dave.     But  as 

139 


The   Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

they  all  three  saw  the  boy  at  different  times, 
why,  it's— " 

"What?" 

"It's  another  thing." 

"Now,  you  can't  get  out  of  it  that  way, 
Henry.  Do  you  believe  that  the  child  long 
ed  so  to  be  back  here  that — " 

"Ah,  who  knows?  There's  something 
very  strange  about  all  that.  But  we  can't 
find  our  way  out,  except  by  the  short-cut 
of  supposing  that  nothing  of  the  kind  hap 
pened." 

"You  can't  suppose  that,  though,  if  all 
three  of  the  boys  say  it  did." 

"I  can  suppose  that  they  think  it  hap 
pened,  or  made  each  other  think  so." 

Pony's  mother  drew  a  long  sigh.  "  Well, 
I  know  what  /  shall  always  think,"  she 
said. 


VIII 

HOW  PONY  BAKER  CAME  PRETTY  NEAR 
RUNNING  OFF  WITH  A  CIRCUS 

JUST  before  the  circus  came,  about  the 
end  of  July,  something  happened  that 
made  Pony  mean  to  run  off  more  than  any 
thing  that  ever  was.  His  father  and  mother 
were  coming  home  from  a  walk,  in  the  even 
ing  ;  it  was  so  hot  nobody  could  stay  in  the 
house,  and  just  as  they  were  coming  to  the 
front  steps  Pony  stole  up  behind  them  and 
tossed  a  snowball  which  'he  had  got  out  of 
the  garden  at  his  mother,  just  for  fun.  The 
flower  struck  her  very  softly  on  her  hair, 
for  she  had  no  bonnet  on,  and  she  gave  a 
jump  and  a  hollo  that  made  Pony  laugh; 
and  then  she  caught  him  by  the  arm  and 
boxed  his  ears. 

"Oh,  my  goodness!     It  was  you,  was  it, 
you    good-for-nothing    boy?    I    thought    it 
141 


The   Flight    of  Pony  Baker 

was  a  bat!"  she  said,  and  she  broke  out 
crying  and  ran  into  the  house,  and  would 
not  mind  his  father,  who  was  calling  after 
her,  "Lucy,  Lucy,  my  dear  child!" 

Pony  was  crying,  too,  for  he  did  not  intend 
to  frighten  his  mother,  and  when  she  took 
his  fun  as  if  he  had  done  something  wicked 
he  did  not  know  what  to  think.  He  stole  off 
to  bed  and  he  lay  there  crying  in  the  dark  and 
expecting  that  she  would  come  to  him,  as  she 
always  did,  to  have  him  say  that  he  was 
sorry  when  he  had  been  wicked,  or  to  tell 
him  that  she  was  sorry,  when  she  thought 
she  had  not  been  quite  fair  with  him.  But 
she  did  not  come,  and  after  a  good  while  his 
father  came  and  said:  "Are  you  awake, 
Pony?  I  am  sorry  your  mother  misunder 
stood  your  fun.  But  you  mustn't  mind  it, 
dear  boy.  She's  not  well,  and  she's  very 
nervous." 

"I  don't  care!"  Pony  sobbed  out.  "She 
won't  have  a  chance  to  touch  me  again!" 
For  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  run  off 
with  the  circus  which  was  coming  the  next 
Tuesday. 

142 


Pony  Near  Runs  Off  with  a  Circus 

He  turned  his  face  away,  sobbing,  and  his 
father,  after  standing  by  his  bed  a  moment, 
went  away  without  saying  anything  but, 
"Don't  forget  your  prayers,  Pony.  You'll 
feel  differently  in  the  morning,  I  hope." 

Pony  fell  asleep  thinking  how  he  would 
come  back  to  the  Boy's  Town  with  the  circus 
when  he  was  grown  up,  and  when  he  came 
out  in  the  ring  riding  three  horses  bareback 
he  would  see  his  father  and  mother  and 
sisters  in  one  of  the  lower  seats.  They 
would  not  know  him,  but  he  would  know 
them,  and  he  would  send  for  them  to  come 
to  the  dressing-room,  and  would  be  very 
good  to  them,  all  but  his  mother;  he  would 
be  very  cold  and  stiff  with  her,  though  he 
would  know  that  she  was  prouder  of  him 
than  all  the  rest  put  together,  and  she  would 
go  away  almost  crying. 

He  began  being  cold  and  stiff  with  her  the 
very  next  morning,  although  she  was  better 
than  ever  to  him,  and  gave  him  waffles  for 
breakfast  with  unsalted  butter,  and  tried  to 
pet  him  up.  That  whole  day  she  kept  trying 
to  do  things  for  him,  but  he  would  scarcely 
143 


The   Flight   of  Pony   Baker 

speak  to  her ;  and  at  night  she  came  to  him 
and  said,  "  What  makes  you  act  so  strangely, 
Pony  ?  Are  you  offended  with  your  mother  ? ' ' 

"Yes,  I  am!"  said  Pony,  haughtily,  and 
he  twitched  away  from  where  she  was  sitting 
on  the  side  of  his  bed,  leaning  over  him. 

"On  account  of  last  night,  Pony?"  she 
asked,  softly. 

"I  reckon  you  know  well  enough,"  said 
Pony,  and  he  tried  to  be  disgusted  with  her 
for  her  being  such  a  hypocrite,  but  he  had 
to  set  his  teeth  hard,  hard,  or  he  would  have 
broken  down  crying. 

"  If  it's  for  that,  you  mustn't,  Pony,  dear. 
You  don't  know  how  you  frightened  me. 
When  your  snowball  hit  me,  I  felt  sure  it  was 
a  bat,  and  I'm  so  afraid  of  bats,  you  know.  I 
didn't  mean  to  hurt  my  poor  boy's  feelings 
so,  and  you  mustn't  mind  it  any  more,  Pony. " 

She  stooped  down  and  kissed  him  on  the 
forehead,  but  he  did  not  move  or  say  any 
thing  ;  only,  after  that  he  felt  more  forgiving 
towards  his  mother.  He  made  up  his  mind 
to  be  good  to  her  along  with  the  rest  when 
he  came  back  with  the  circus.  But  still  he 
144 


HE  BEGAN  BEING  COLD  AND  SPIFF  WITH  HER 
THE  VERY  NEXT  MORNING" 


Pony  Near  Runs  Off  with  a  Circus 

meant  to  run  off  with  the  circus.  He  did  not 
see  how  he  could  do  anything  else,  for  he  had 
told  all  the  boys  that  day  that  he  was  going 
to  do  it;  and  when  they  just  laughed,  and 
vsaid:  "Oh  yes.  Think  you  can  fool  your 
grandmother  1  It'll  be  like  running  off 
with  the  Indians/'  Pony  wagged  his  head, 
and  said  they  would  see  whether  it  would 
or  not,  and  offered  to  bet  them  what  they 
dared. 

The  morning  of  the  circus  day  all  the  fel 
lows  went  out  to  the  corporation  line  to  meet 
the  circus  procession.  There  were  ladies 
and  knights,  the  first  thing,  riding  on  spotted 
horses ;  and  then  a  band  chariot,  all  made  up 
of  swans  and  dragons.  There  were  about 
twenty  baggage  wagons ;  but  before  you  got 
to  them  there  was  the  greatest  thing  of  all. 
It  was  a  chariot  drawn  by  twelve  Shetland 
ponies,  and  it  was  shaped  like  a  big  shell, 
and  around  in  the  bottom  of  the  shell  there 
were  little  circus  actors,  boys  and  girls, 
dressed  in  their  circus  clothes,  and  they  all 
looked  exactly  like  fairies.  They  scarce 
seemed  to  see  the  fellows,  as  they  ran  along- 
145 


The   Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

side  of  their  chariot,  but  Hen  Billard  and 
Archy  Hawkins,  who  were  always  cutting 
up,  got  close  enough  to  throw  some  peanuts 
to  the  circus  boys,  and  some  of  the  little 
circus  girls  laughed,  and  the  driver  looked 
around  and  cracked  his  whip  at  the  fellows, 
and  they  all  had  to  get  out  of  the  way  then. 

Jim  Leonard  said  that  the  circus  boys 
and  girls  were  all  stolen,  and  nobody  was 
allowed  to  come  close  to  them  for  fear  they 
would  try  to  send  word  to  their  friends. 
Some  of  the  fellows  did  not  believe  it,  and 
wanted  to  know  how  he  knew  it ;  and  he  said 
he  read  it  in  a  paper;  after  that  nobody  could 
deny  it.  But  he  said  that  if  you  went  with 
the  circus  men  of  your  own  free  will  they 
would  treat  you  first-rate;  only  they  would 
give  you  burnt  brandy  to  keep  you  little; 
nothing  else  but  burnt  brandy  would  do  it, 
but  that  would  do  it,  sure. 

Pony  was  scared  at  first  when  he  heard  that 
most  of  the  circus  fellows  were  stolen,  but 
he  thought  if  he  went  of  his  own  accord  he 
would  be  all  right.  Still,  he  did  not  feel  so 
much  like  running  off  with  the  circus  as  he 
146 


Pony  Near  Runs  Off  with  a  Circus 

did  before  the  circus  came.  He  asked  Jim 
Leonard  whether  the  circus  men  made  all 
the  children  drink  burnt  brandy;  and  Archy 
Hawkins  and  Hen  Billard  heard  him  ask, 
and  began  to  mock  him.  They  took  him 
up  between  them,  one  by  his  arms  and  the 
other  by  the  legs,  and  ran  along  with  him, 
and  kept  saying,  "  Does  it  want  to  be  a  great 
big  circus  actor?  Then  it  shall,  so  it  shall/' 
and,  "Well  tell  the  circus  men  to  be  very 
careful  of  you,  Pony  dear ! "  till  Pony  wriggled 
himself  loose  and  began  to  stone  them. 

After  that  they  had  to  let  him  alone,  for 
when  a  fellow  began  to  stone  you  in  the 
Boy's  Town  you  had  to  let  him  alone,  unless 
you  were  going  to  whip  him,  and  the  fellows 
only  wanted  to  have  a  little  fun  with  Pony. 
But  what  they  did  made  him  all  the  more 
resolved  to  run  away  with  the  circus,  just  to 
show  them. 

He  helped  to  carry  water  for  the  circus 
men's  horses,  along  with  the  boys  who 
earned  their  admission  that  way.  He  had 
no  need  to  do  it,  because  his  father  was  going 
to  take  him  in,  anyway;  but  Jim  Leonard 


The   Flight   of  Pony   Bake? 

said  it  was  the  only  way  to  get  acquainted 
with  the  circus  men.  Still  Pony  was  afraid 
to  speak  to  them,  and  he  would  not  have 
said  a  word  to  any  of  them  if  it  had  not  been 
for  one  of  them  speaking  to  him  first,  when 
he  saw  him  come  lugging  a  great  pail  of 
water,  and  bending  far  over  on  the  right  to 
balance  it. 

"That's  right/'  the  circus  man  said  to 
Pony.  "If  you  ever  fell  into  that  bucket 
you'd  drown,  sure." 

He  was  a  big  fellow,  with  funny  eyes,  and 
he  had  a  white  bull-dog  at  his  heels ;  and  all 
the  fellows  said  he  was  the  one  who  guarded 
the  outside  of  the  tent  when  the  circus  began, 
and  kept  the  boys  from  hooking  in  under 
the  curtain. 

Even  then  Pony  would  not  have  had  the 
courage  to  say  anything,  but  Jim  Leonard 
was  just  behind  him  with  another  bucket 
of  water,  and  he  spoke  up  for  him.  "He 
wants  to  go  with  the  circus." 

They  both  set  down  their  buckets,  and 
Pony  felt  himself  turning  pale  when  the 
circus  man  came  towards  them.  "Wants 
148 


Pony  Near  Runs  Off  with  a  Circus 

to  go  with  the  circus,  heigh?  Let's  have  a 
look  at  you. ' '  He  took  Pony  by  the  shoulders 
and  turned  him  slowly  round,  and  looked  at 
his  nice  clothes,  and  took  him  by  the  chin. 
"Orphan?"  he  asked. 

Pony  did  not  know  what  to  say,  but  Jim 
Leonard  nodded;  perhaps  he  did  not  know 
what  to  say,  either ;  but  Pony  felt  as  if  they 
had  both  told  a  lie. 

"Parents  living?"  The  circus  man  look 
ed  at  Pony,  and  Pony  had  to  say  that  they 
were. 

He  gasped  out,  "Yes,"  so  that  you  could 
scarcely  hear  him,  and  the  circus  man  said : 

"Well,  that's  right.  When  we  take  an 
orphan,  we  want  to  have  his  parents  living, 
so  that  we  can  go  and  ask  them  what  sort 
of  a  boy  he  is." 

He  looked  at  Pony  in  such  a  friendly, 
smiling  way  that  Pony  took  courage  to  ask 
him  whether  they  would  want  him  to  drink 
burnt  brandy. 

"What  for?" 

"To  keep  me  little." 

"Oh,  I  see."  The  circus  man  took  off 
149 


The   Flight   of  Pony  Baker 

his  hat  and  rubbed  his  forehead  with  a  silk 
handkerchief,  which  he  threw  into  the  top 
of  his  hat  before  he  put  it  on  again.  "  No, 
I  don't  know  as  we  will.  We're  rather  short 
of  giants  just  now.  How  would  you  like  to 
drink  a  glass  of  elephant  milk  every  morning 
and  grow  into  an  eight-footer?" 

Pony  said  he  didn't  know  whether  he  would 
like  to  be  quite  so  big;  and  then  the  circus 
man  said  perhaps  he  would  rather  go  for  an 
India-rubber  man ;  that  was  what  they  called 
the  contortionists  in  those  days. 

" Let's  feel  of  you  again."  The  circus 
man  took  hold  of  Pony  and  felt  his  joints. 
"You're  put  together  pretty  tight;  but  I 
reckon  we  could  make  you  do  if  you'd  let 
us  take  you  apart  with  a  screw-driver  and 
limber  up  the  pieces  with  rattlesnake  oil. 
Wouldn't  like  it,  heigh?  Well,  let  me  see!" 
The  circus  man  thought  a  moment,  and  then 
he  said :  "  How  would  double-somersaults 
on  four  horses  bareback  do?" 

Pony  said  that  would  do,  and  then  the 
circus  man  said :  "  Well,  then,  we've  just  hit 
it,  because  our  double-somersault,  four-horse 
150 


Pony  Near  Runs  Off  with  a  Circus 

bareback  is  just  going  to  leave  us,  and  we 
want  a  new  one  right  away.  Now,  there's 
more  than  one  way  of  joining  a  circus,  but 
the  best  way  is  to  wait  on  your  front  steps 
with  your  things  all  packed' up,  and  the  pro 
cession  comes  along  at  about  one  o'clock  in 
the  morning  and  picks  you  up.  Which 'd 
you  rather  do?" 

Pony  pushed  his  toe  into  the  turf,  as  he 
always  did  when  he  was  ashamed,  but  he 
made  out  to  say  he  would  rather  wait  out  on 
the  front  steps. 

"Well,  then,  that's  all  settled,"  said  the 
circus  man.  "We'll  be  along,"  and  he  was 
going  away  with  his  dog,  but  Jim  Leonard 
called  after  him: 

"You  hain't  asked  him  whereabouts  he 
lives." 

The  circus  man  kept  on,  and  he  said,  with 
out  looking  around,  "Oh,  that's  all  right. 
We've  got  somebody  that  looks  after  that." 

"It's  the  magician,"  Jim  Leonard  whis 
pered  to  Pony,  and  they  walked  away. 


IX 


HOW   PONY   DID  NOT  QUITE  GET  OFF 
WITH  THE  CIRCUS 

A  CROWD  of  the  fellows  had  been  waiting 
to  know  what  the  boys  had  been  talking 
about  to  the  circus  man;  but  Jim  Leonard 
said:  "Don't  you  tell,  Pony  Baker!"  and  he 
started  to  run,  and  that  made  Pony  run, 
too,  and  they  both  ran  till  they  got  away 
from  the  fellows. 

"  You  have  got  to  keep  it  a  secret ;  for  if  a 
lot  of  fellows  find  it  out  the  constable  11  get 
to  know  it-,  and  hell  be  watching  out  around 
the  corner  of  your  house,  and  when  the  pro 
cession  comes  along  and  he  sees  you're  real 
ly  going  hell  take  you  up,  and  keep  you  in 
jail  till  your  father  comes  and  bails  you  out. 
Now,  you  mind!" 

Pony  said,  "Oh,  I  won't  tell  anybody," 
152 


How  Pony  Did  Not  Quite  Get  Off 

and  when  Jim  Leonard  said  that  if  a  circus 
man  was  to  feel  him  over,  that  way,  and  act 
so  kind  of  pleasant  and  friendly,  he  would 
be  too  proud  to  speak  to  anybody,  Pony 
confessed  that  he  knew  it  was  a  great  thing 
all  the  time. 

"The  way  '11  be,"  said  Jim  Leonard,  "to 
keep  in  with  him,  and  he'll  keep  the  others 
from  picking  on  you;  they'll  be  afraid  to, 
on  account  of  his  dog.  You'll  see,  he'll 
be  the  one  to  come  for  you  to-night;  and 
if  the  constable  is  there  the  dog  won't  let 
him  touch  you.  I  never  thought  of  that/' 

Perhaps  on  account  of  thinking  of  it  now 
Jim  Leonard  felt  free  to  tell  the  other  fellows 
how  Pony  was  going  to  run  off,  for  when  a 
crowd  of  them  came  along  he  told  them. 
They  said  it  was  splendid,  and  they  said  that 
if  they  could  make  their  mothers  let  them, 
or  if  they  could  get  out  of  the  house  without 
their  mothers  knowing  it,  they  were  going 
to  sit  up  with  Pony  and  watch  out  for  the 
procession,  and  bid  him  good-bye. 

At  dinner-time  he  found  out  that  his  fa 
ther  was  going  to  take  him  and  all  his  sisters 
153 


The   Flight   of  Pony   Baker 

to  the  circus,  and  his  father  and  mother  were 
so  nice  to  him,  asking  him  about  the  proces 
sion  and  everything,  that  his  heart  ached  at 
the  thought  of  running  away  from  home  and 
leaving  them.  But  now  he  had  to  do  it; 
the  circus  man  was  coming  for  him,  and  he 
could  not  back  out;  he  did  not  know  what 
would  happen  if  he  did.  It  seemed  to  him 
as  if  his  mother  had  done  everything  she 
could  to  make  it  harder  for  him.  She  had 
stewed  chicken  for  dinner,  with  plenty  of 
gravy,  and  hot  biscuits  to  sop  in,  and  peach 
preserves  afterwards;  and  she  kept  helping 
him  to  more,  because  she  said  boys  that 
followed  the  circus  around  got  dreadfully 
hungry.  The  eating  seemed  to  keep  his 
heart  down;  it  was  trying  to  get  into  his 
throat  all  the  time;  and  he  knew  that  she 
was  being  good  to  him,  but  if  he  had  not 
known  it  he  would  have  believed  his  mother 
was  just  doing  it  to  mock  him. 

Pony  had  to  go  to  the  circus  with  his  father 

and  sisters,  and  to  get  on  his  shoes  and  a 

clean  collar.    But  a  crowd  of  the  fellows  were 

there  at  the  tent  door  to  watch  out  whether 

154 


How  Pony  Did  Not  Quite  Get  Off 

the  circus  man  would  say  anything  to  him 
when  he  went  in;  and  Jim  Leonard  rubbed 
up  against  him,  when  the  man  passed  with 
his  dog  and  did  not  even  look  at  Pony,  and 
said :  "  He's  just  pretending.  He  don't  want 
your  father  to  know.  Hell  be  round  for 
you,  sure.  I  saw  him  kind  of  smile  to  one 
of  the  other  circus  men/' 

It  was  a  splendid  circus,  and  there  were 
more  things  than  Pony  ever  saw  in  a  circus 
before.  But  instead  of  hating  to  have  it 
over,  it  seemed  to  him  that  it  would  never 
come  to  an  end.  He  kept  thinking  and 
thinking,  and  wondering  whether  he  would 
like  to  be  a  circus  actor;  and  when  the  one 
came  out  who  rode  four  horses  bareback 
and  stood  on  his  head  on  the  last  horse, 
and  drove  with  the  reins  in  his  teeth,  Pony 
thought  that  he  never  could  learn  to  do  it; 
and  if  he  could  not  learn  he  did  not  know 
what  the  circus  men  would  say  to  him.  It 
seemed  to  him  that  it  was  very  strange  he 
had  not  told  that  circus  man  that  he  didn't 
know  whether  he  could  do  it  or  not;  but  he 
had  not,  and  now  it  was  too  late. 

155 


The  Flight  of  Pony   Bake* 

A  boy  came  around  calling  lemonade,  and 
Pony's  father  bought  some  for  each  of  the 
children,  but  Pony  could  hardly  taste  his. 

"What  is  the  matter  with  you,  Pony? 
Are  you  sick?"  his  father  asked. 

"No.  I  don't  care  for  any;  that's  all. 
I'm  well/'  said  Pony;  but  he  felt  very  mis 
erable. 

After  supper  Jim  Leonard  came  round  and 
went  up  to  Pony's  room  with  him  to  help 
him  pack,  and  he  was  so  gay  about  it  and 
said  he  only  wished  he  was  going,  that  Pony 
cheered  up  a  little.  Jim  had  brought  a  large 
square  of  checked  gingham  that  he  said  he 
did  not  believe  his  mother  would  ever  want, 
and  that  he  would  tell  her  he  had  taken  if 
she  asked  for  it.  He  said  it  would  be  the 
very  thing  for  Pony  to  carry  his  clothes  in, 
for  it  was  light  and  strong  and  would  hold  a 
lot.  He  helped  Pony  to  choose  his  things  out 
of  his  bureau  drawers:  a  pair  of  stockings 
and  a  pair  of  white  pantaloons  and  a  blue 
roundabout,  and  a  collar,  and  two  handker 
chiefs.  That  was  all  he  said  Pony  would 
need,  because  he  would  have  his  circus  clothes 

156 


How  Pony  Did  Not  Quite  Get  Off 

right  away,  and  there  was  no  use  taking 
things  that  he  would  never  wear. 

Jim  did  these  up  in  the  square  of  gingham, 
and  he  tied  it  across  eater-cornered  twice,  in 
double  knots,  and  showed  Pony  how  he 
could  put  his  hand  through  and  carry  it 
just  as  easy.  He  hid  it  under  the  bed  for 
him,  and  he  told  Pony  that  if  he  was  in 
Pony's  place  he  should  go  to  bed  right  away 
or  pretty  soon,  so  that  nobody  would  think 
anything,  and  maybe  he  could  get  some 
sleep  before  he  got  up  and  went  down  to 
wait  on  the  front  steps  for  the  circus  to 
come  along.  He  promised  to  be  there  with 
the  other  boys  and  keep  them  from  fooling 
or  making  a  noise,  or  doing  anything  to 
wake  his  father  up,  or  make  the  constable 
come.  "You  see,  Pony,"  he  said,  "if  you 
can  run  off  this  year,  and  come  back  with 
the  circus  next  year,  then  a  whole  lot  of 
fellows  can  run  off.  Don't  you  see  that?" 

Pony  said  he  saw  that,  but  he  said  he 

wished  some  of  the  other  fellows  were  going 

now,  because  he  did  not  know  any  of  the 

circus  boys  and  he  was  afraid  he  might  feel 

157 


"The   Flight    of  Pony  Baket 

kind  of  lonesome.  But  Jim  Leonard  said 
he  would  soon  get  acquainted,  and,  any 
way,  a  year  would  go  before  he  knew  it, 
and  then  if  the  other  fellows  could  get  off 
he  would  have  plenty  of  company. 

As  soon  as  Jim  Leonard  was  gone  Pony 
undressed  and  got  into  bed.  He  was  not 
sleepy,  but  he  thought  maybe  it  would  be 
just  as  well  to  rest  a  little  while  before  the 
circus  procession  came  along  for  him;  and, 
anyway,  he  could  not  bear  to  go  down-stairs 
and  be  with  the  family  when  he  was  going 
to  leave  them  so  soon,  and  not  come  back 
for  a  whole  year. 

After  a  good  while,  or  about  the  time  he 
usually  came  in  from  playing,  he  heard 
his  mother  saying :  "  Where  in  the  world  is 
Pony?  Has  he  come  in  yet?  Have  you 
seen  him,  girls  ?  Pony  I  Pony  1"  she 
called. 

But  somehow  Pony  could  not  get  his  voice 
up  out  of  his  throat;  he  wanted  to  answer 
her,  but  he  could  not  speak.  He  heard  her 
say,  "Go  out  to  the  front  steps,  girls,  and 
see  if  you  can  see  him,"  and  then  he  heard 

158 


How  Pony  Did  Not  Quite  Get  Off 

her  coming  up  the  stairs;  and  she  came 
into  his  room,  and  when  she  saw  him  lying 
there  in  bed  she  said :  "  Why,  I  believe  in 
my  heart  the  child's  asleep!  Pony!  Are 
you  awake?" 

Pony  made  out  to  say  no,  and  his  mother 
said:  "My!  what  a  fright  you  gave  me! 
Why  didn't  you  answer  me?  Are  you  sick, 
Pony?  Your  father  said  you  didn't  seem 
well  at  the  circus;  and  you  didn't  eat  any 
supper,  hardly." 

Pony  said  he  was  first-rate,  but  he  spoke 
very  low,  and  his  mother  came  up  and  sat 
down  on  the  side  of  his  bed. 

"What  is  the  matter,  child?"  She  bent 
over  and  felt  his  forehead.  "  No,  you  haven't 
got  a  bit  of  fever,"  she  said,  and  she  kissed 
him,  and  began  to  tumble  his  short  black 
hair  in  the  way  she  had,  and  she  got  one 
of  his  hands  between  her  two,  and  kept 
rubbing  it.  "But  you've  had  a  long,  tire 
some  day,  and  that's  why  you've  gone  to 
bed,  I  suppose.  But  if  you  feel  the  least 
sick,  Pony,  I'll  send  for  the  doctor." 

Pony  said  he  was  not  sick  at  all;  just 
159 


The  Flight   of  Pony   Baker 

tired;  and  that  was  true;  he  felt  as  if  he 
never  wanted  to  get  up  again. 

His  mother  put  her  arm  under  his  neck, 
and  pressed  her  face  close  down  to  his,  and 
said  very  low:  "Pony,  dear,  you  don't 
feel  hard  towards  your  mother  for  what  she 
did  the  other  night?" 

He  knew  she  meant  boxing  his  ears,  when 
he  was  not  to  blame,  and  he  said:  "Oh 
no,"  and  then  he  threw  his  arms  round  her 
neck  and  cried ;  and  she  told  him  not  to  cry, 
and  that  she  would  never  do  such  a  thing 
again;  but  she  was  really  so  frightened  she 
did  not  know  what  she  was  doing. 

When  he  quieted  down  she  said:  "Now 
say  your  prayers,  Pony, '  Our  Father/  "  and 
she  said  "  Our  Father  "  all  through  with  him, 
and  after  that,  "  Now  I  lay  me,"  just  as  when 
he  was  a  very  little  fellow.  After  they  had 
finished  she  stooped  over  and  kissed  him 
again,  and  when  he  turned  his  face  into  his 
pillow  she  kept  smoothing  his  hair  with  her 
hand  for  about  a  minute.  Then  she  went 
away. 

Pony  could  hear  them  stirring  about  for  a 
160 


How  Pony  Did  Not  Quite  Get  Off 

good  while  down-stairs.  His  father  came  in 
from  up-town  at  last  and  asked: 

"Has  Pony  come  in?"  and  his  mothef 
said: 

"  Yes,  he's  up  in  bed.  I  wouldn't  disturb 
him,  Henry.  He's  asleep  by  this  time." 

His  father  said:  "I  don't  know  what  to 
make  of  the  boy.  If  he  keeps  on  acting  so 
strangely  I  shall  have  the  doctor  see  him 
in  the  morning." 

Pony  felt  dreadfully  to  think  how  far  away 
from  them  he  should  be  in  the  morning,  and 
he  would  have  given  anything  if  he  could 
have  gone  down  to  his  father  and  mother  and 
told  them  what  he  wTas  going  to  do.  But  it 
did  not  seem  as  if  he  could. 

By-and-by  he  began  to  be  sleepy,  and  then 
he  dozed  off,  but  he  thought  it  was  hardly  a 
minute  before  he  heard  the  circus  band,  and 
knew  that  the  procession  was  coming  for  him. 
He  jumped  out  of  bed  and  put  on  his  things 
as  fast  as  he  could ;  but  his  roundabout  had 
only  one  sleeve  to  it,  somehow,  and  he  had  to 
button  the  lower  buttons  of  his  trousers  to 
keep  it  on.  He  got  his  bundle  and  stole 
"  161 


The   Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

down  to  the  front  door  without  seeming  to 
touch  his  feet  to  anything,  and  when  he  got 
out  on  the  front  steps  he  saw  the  circus 
magician  coming  along.  By  that  time  the 
music  had  stopped  and  Pony  could  not  see 
any  procession.  The  magician  had  on  a 
tall,  peaked  hat,  like  a  witch.  He  took  up 
the  whole  street,  he  was  so  wide  in  the  black 
glazed  gown  that  hung  from  his  arms  when 
he  stretched  them  out,  for  he  seemed  to  be 
groping  along  that  way,  with  his  wand  in  one 
hand,  like  a  blind  man. 

He  kept  saying  in  a  kind  of  deep,  shaking 
voice:  "It's  all  glory;  it's  all  glory/'  and 
the  sound  of  those  words  froze  Pony's  blood. 
He  tried  to  get  back  into  the  house  again, 
so  that  the  magician  should  not  find  him, 
but  when  he  felt  for  the  door-knob  there  was 
no  door  there  anywhere;  nothing  but  a 
smooth  wall.  Then  he  sat  down  on  the  steps 
and  tried  to  shrink  up  so  little  that  the  ma 
gician  would  miss  him;  but  he  saw  his  wide 
goggles  getting  nearer  and  nearer ;  and  then 
his  father  and  the  doctor  were  standing  by 
him  looking  down  at  him,  and  the  doctor  said : 
162 


How  Pony  Did  Not  Quite  Get  Off 

"He  has  been  walking  in  his  sleep;  he 
must  be  bled/'  and  he  got  out  his  lancet, 
when  Pony  heard  his  mother  calling  :  "  Pony, 
Pony!  What's  the  matter?  Have  you  got 
the  nightmare?"  and  he  woke  up,  and  found 
it  was  just  morning. 

The  sun  was  shining  in  at  his  window, 
and  it  made  him  so  glad  to  think  that  by 
this  time  the  circus  was  far  away  and  he 
was  not  with  it,  that  he  hardly  knew  what 
to  do. 

He  was  not  very  well  for  two  or  three  days 
afterwards,  and  his  mother  let  him  stay  out 
of  school  to  see  whether  he  was  really  going 
to  be  sick  or  not.  When  he  went  back  most 
of  the  fellows  had  forgotten  that  he  had  been 
going  to  run  off  with  the  circus.  Some  of 
them  that  happened  to  think  of  it  plagued 
him  a  little  and  asked  how  he  liked  being  a 
circus  actor. 

Hen  Billard  was  the  worst;  he  said  he 
reckoned  the  circus  magician  got  scared 
when  he  saw  what  a  whaler  Pony  was,  and 
told  the  circus  men  that  they  would  have 
to  get  a  new  tent  to  hold  him ;  and  that  was 


The   Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

the  reason  why  they  didn't  take  him.  Archy 
Hawkins  said :  "  How  long  did  you  have  to 
wait  on  the  front  steps,  Pony,  dear?"  But 
after  that  he  was  pretty  good  to  him,  and  said 
he  reckoned  they  had  better  not  any  of  them 
pretend  that  Pony  had  not  tried  to  run  off  if 
they  had  not  been  up  to  see. 

Pony  himself  could  never  be  exactly  sure 
whether  he  had  waited  on  the  front  steps  and 
seen  the  circus  magician  or  not.  Sometimes 
it  seemed  all  of  it  like  a  dream,  and  some 
times  only  part  of  it.  Jim  Leonard  tried  to 
help  him  make  it  out,  but  they  could  not.  He 
said  it  was  a  pity  he  had  overslept  himself, 
for  if  he  had  come  to  bid  Pony  good-bye,  the 
way  he  said,  then  he  could  have  told  just  how 
much  of  it  was  a  dream  and  how  much  was 
not. 


THE  ADVENTURES  THAT  PONY'S  COUSIN, 
FRANK  BAKER,  HAD  WITH  A  POCK 
ETFUL  OF  MONEY 

VERY  likely  Pony  Baker  would  not  have 
tried  to  run  off  any  more  if  it  had  not 
been  for  Jim  Leonard.  He  was  so  glad  he 
had  not  got  off  with  the  circus  that  he  did 
not  mind  any  of  the  things  at  home  that 
used  to  vex  him;  and  it  really  seemed  as  if 
his  father  and  mother  were  trying  to  act 
better.  They  were  a  good  deal  taken  up 
with  each  other,  and  sometimes  he  thought 
they  let  him  do  things  they  would  not  have 
let  him  do  if  they  had  noticed  what  he  asked. 
His  mother  was  fonder  of  him  than  ever, 
and  if  she  had  not  kissed  him  so  much  before 
the  fellows  he  would  not  have  cared,  for  when 
they  were  alone  he  liked  to  have  her  pet  him. 
165 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Baker 

But  one  thing  was,  he  could  never  get  her 
to  like  Jim  Leonard,  or  to  believe  that  Jim 
was  not  leading  him  into  mischief  whenever 
they  were  off  together.  She  was  always 
wanting  him  to  go  with  his  cousin  Frank, 
and  he  would  have  liked  to  ask  Frank  about 
running  off,  and  whether  a  fellow  had  better 
do  it;  but  he  was  ashamed,  and  especially 
after  he  heard  his  father  tell  how  splendidly 
Frank  had  behaved  with  two  thousand  dollars 
he  was  bringing  from  the  city  to  the  Boy's 
Town;  Pony  was  afraid  that  Frank  would 
despise  him,  and  he  did  not  hardly  feel  fit 
to  go  with  Frank,  anyway. 

Frank  Baker  was  one  of  those  fellows  that 
every  mother  would  feel  her  boy  was  safe 
with.  She  would  be  sure  that  no  crowd  he 
was  in  was  going  to  do  any  harm  or  come 
to  any,  for  he  would  have  an  anxious  eye 
out  for  everybody,  and  he  would  stand  be 
tween  the  crowd  and  the  mischief  that  a 
crowd  of  boys  nearly  always  wants  to  do. 
His  own  mother  felt  easy  about  the  younger 
children  when  they  were  with  Frank;  and 
in  a  place  where  there  were  more  chances 


*      //   F    wr  MtrtfT-i**  '  >4s^lw7        ^   l  TflnV  I  •     j 


•f-^.'-    _--  —          ,  *• '  >  ^"*  '^db&%&?&£,  -f<£', —  --  r~       -^ 


"  FRANK   BAKER   WAS  ONE   OF  THOSE   FELLOWS 

THAT  EVERY   MOTHER   WOULD   FEEL    HER 

BOY    WAS  SAFE  WITH  " 


The  Adventures  of  Pony's  Cousin 

for  a  boy  to  get  sucked  Under  mill-wheels, 
and  break  through  ice,  and  fall  from  bridges, 
or  have  his  fingers  taken  off  by  machinery 
than  any  other  place  I  ever  heard  of,  she 
no  more  expected  anything  to  happen  to 
them,  if  he  had  them  in  charge,  than  if  she 
had  them  in  charge  herself. 

As  there  were  a  good  many  other  children 
in  the  family,  and  Mrs.  Baker  did  her  own 
work,  like  nearly  every  mother  in  the  Boy's 
Town,  Frank  almost  always  had  some  of 
them  in  charge.  When  he  went  hunting, 
or  fishing,  or  walnutting,  or  berrying,  or 
in  swimming,  he  usually  had  one  or  two 
younger  brothers  with  him;  if  he  had  only 
one,  he  thought  he  was  having  the  greatest 
kind  of  a  time. 

He  did  not  mind  carrying  his  brother  on 
his  back  when  he  got  tired,  although  it  was 
not  exactly  the  way  to  steal  on  game,  and 
the  gun  was  a  heavy  enough  load,  anyway ; 
but  if  he  had  not  got  many  walnuts,  or  any 
at  all — as  sometimes  happened — it  was  not 
a  great  hardship  to  haul  his  brother  home 
in  the  wagon.  To  be  sure,  when  he  wanted 
167 


The   Flight    of  Pony   Baker 

to  swim  out  with  the  other  big  boys  it  was 
pretty  trying  to  have  to  keep  an  eye  on  his 
brother,  and  see  that  he  did  not  fall  into  the 
water  from  the  bank  where  he  left  him. 

He  was  a  good  deal  more  anxious  about 
other  boys  than  he  was  about  himself,  and 
once  he  came  near  getting  drowned  through 
his  carelessness.  It  was  in  winter,  and  the 
canal  basin  had  been  frozen  over ;  then  most 
of  the  water  was  let  out  from  under  the  ice, 
and  afterwards  partly  let  in  again.  This 
lifted  the  ice-sheet,  but  not  back  to  its  old 
level,  and  the  ice  that  clung  to  the  shores 
shelved  steeply  down  to  the  new  level. 
Frank  stepped  on  this  shore  ice  to  get  a 
shinny-ball,  and  slipped  down  to  the  edge  of 
the  ice-sheet,  which  he  would  be  sure  to  go 
under  into  the  water.  He  holloed  with  all 
his  might,  and  by  good  luck  some  people 
came  and  reached  him  a  stick,  by  which 
he  pulled  himself  out. 

The  scare  of  it  haunted  him  for  long  after, 

but  not  so  much  for  himself.     Whenever  he 

was  away  from  home  in  the  winter  he  would 

see  one  of  his  younger  brothers  slipping  down 

168 


The  Adventures  of  Pony's  Cousin 

the  shore  ice  and  going  under  the  ice-sheet, 
and  he  would  break  into  a  cold  sweat  at  the 
idea.  This  shows  just  the  worrying  kind 
of  boy  Frank  was;  and  it  shows  how  used 
he  was  to  having  care  put  upon  him,  and 
how  he  would  even  borrow  trouble  when  he 
had  none. 

It  generally  happens  with  any  one  who 
makes  himself  useful  that  other  people  make 
him  useful,  too,  and  all  the  neighbors  put 
as  much  trust  in  Frank  as  his  mother,  and 
got  him  to  do  a  good  many  things  that  they 
would  not  have  got  other  boys  to  do.  They 
could  not  look  into  his  face,  a  little  more  care 
worn  than  it  ought  to  be  at  his  age,  without 
putting  perfect  faith  in  him,  and  trying  to 
get  something  out  of  him.  That  was  how 
he  came  to  do  so  many  errands  for  mothers 
who  had  plenty  of  boys  of  their  own;  and  he 
seemed  to  be  called  on  in  any  sort  of  trouble 
or  danger,  when  the  fathers  were  up-town, 
and  was  always  chasing  pigs  or  cows  out  of 
other  people's  gardens,  and  breaking  up  their 
hens  from  setting,  or  going  up  trees  with  hives 
to  catch  their  bees  when  they  swarmed. 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Baker 

I  suppose  this  was  how  he  came  to  be  trust 
ed  with  that  pocketful  of  money,  and  why 
he  had  a  young  brother  along  to  double  his 
care  at  the  time. 

The  money  was  given  him  in  the  city,  as 
the  Boy's  Town  boys  always  called  the  large 
place  about  twenty  miles  away,  where  Frank 
went  once  with  his  mother  when  he  was  eleven 
years  old.  She  was  going  to  take  passage 
there  on  a  steamboat  and  go  up  the  Ohio 
River  to  visit  his  grandmother  with  his  sis 
ters,  while  Frank  was  to  go  back  the  same 
day  to  the  Boy's  Town  with  one  of  his  young 
brothers. 

They  all  drove  down  to  the  city  together  in 
the  carriage  which  one  of  his  uncles  had  got 
from  the  livery  stable,  with  a  driver  who  was 
to  take  Frank  and  his  brother  home.  This 
uncle  had  been  visiting  Frank's  father  and 
mother,  and  it  was  his  boat  that  she  was 
going  on.  It  lay  among  a  hundred  other 
boats,  which  had  their  prows  tight  together 
along  the  landing  for  half  a  mile  up  and 
down  the  sloping  shore.  It  was  one  of  the 
largest  boats  of  all,  and  it  ran  every  week 


The  Adventures  of  Pony's  Cousin 

from  Cincinnati  to  Pittsburg,  and  did  not 
take  any  longer  for  the  round  trip  than  an 
ocean  steamer  takes  now  for  the  voyage  from 
New  York  to  Liverpool. 

The  children  all  had  dinner  on  board,  such 
a  dinner  as  there  never  was  in  any  house: 
roast  beef  and  roast  chicken ;  beefsteak  and 
ham  in  chafing-dishes  with  lamps  burning 
under  them  to  keep  them  hot;  pound-cake 
with  frosting  on,  and  pies  and  pickles,  corn- 
bread  and  hot  biscuit ;  jelly  that  kept  shaking 
in  moulds ;  ice-cream  and  Spanish  pudding ; 
coffee  and  tea,  and  I  do  not  know  what  all. 

When  the  children  had  eaten  all  they  could 
hold,  and  made  their  uncle  laugh  till  he  al 
most  cried,  to  see  them  trying  to  eat  every 
thing,  their  mother  went  ashore  with  them, 
and  walked  up  the  landing  towards  the  hotel 
where  the  carriage  was  left,  so  as  to  be  with 
Frank  and  his  little  brother  as  long  as  she 
could  before  they  started  home.  She  was 
about  one  of  the  best  mothers  in  the  Boy's 
Town,  and  Frank  hated  to  have  her  go  away 
even  on  a  visit. 

She  kept  giving  him  charges  about  all  the 
171 


The   Flight   of  Pony   Baker 

things  at  home,  and  how  he  must  take  good 
care  of  his  little  brothers,  and  see  that  the 
garden  gate  was  fastened  so  that  the  cows 
could  not  get  in,  and  feed  the  chickens  reg 
ularly,  and  put  the  cat  out  every  night,  and 
not  let  the  dog  sleep  under  his  bed ;  and  they 
were  so  busy  talking  and  feeling  sorry  that 
they  got  to  the  hotel  before  they  knew  it. 

There,  whom  should  they  see  but  one  of 
the  Boy's  Town  merchants,  who  was  in  the 
city  on  business,  and  who  seemed  as  glad  to 
meet  them  as  if  they  were  his  own  relations. 
They  were  glad,  too,  for  it  made  them  feel 
as  if  they  had  got  back  to  the  Boy's  Town 
when  he  came  up  and  spoke  to  Mrs.  Baker. 
They  had  started  from  home  after  a  very 
early  breakfast,  and  she  said  it  seemed  as 
if  they  had  been  gone  a  year  already.  The 
merchant  told  her  that  he  had  been  looking 
everywhere  for  somebody  he  knew  who  was 
going  to  the  Boy's  Town;  and  then  he  told 
Mrs.  Baker  that  he  had  two  thousand  dollars 
which  he  wanted  to  send  home  to  his  partner, 
and  he  asked  her  if  she  could  take  it  for  him 
when  she  went  back. 

172 


The  Adventures  of  Pony's  Cousin 

"Well,  indeed,  indeed,  I'm  thankful  I'm 
not  going,  Mr.  Bushell!"  Mrs.  Baker  said. 
"And  I  wouldn't  have  supposed  I  could  be, 
I'm  so  homesick.  I'm  going  up  the  river 
on  a  visit  to  mother;  but  if  I  was  going 
straight  back,  I  wouldn't  take  your  two 
thousand  dollars  for  the  half  of  it.  I  would 
be  afraid  of  losing  it,  or  getting  robbed  and 
murdered.  I  don't  know  what  wouldn't  hap 
pen.  I  would  be  happy  to  oblige  you,  but 
indeed,  indeed  I  couldn't!" 

The  merchant  said  he  was  sorry,  but  if  she 
was  not  going  home  he  supposed  he  would 
have  to  find  some  one  who  was.  It  was 
before  the  days  of  sending  money  by  ex 
press,  or  telegraphing  it,  and  the  merchant 
told  her  he  was  afraid  to  trust  the  money  in 
the  mail.  He  asked  her  who  was  going  to 
take  her  carriage  home,  and  she  told  him  the 
name  of  the  driver  from  the  livery  stable  in 
the  Boy's  Town,  who  had  come  to  the  city 
with  them. 

Mr.  Bushell  seemed  dreadfully  disap 
pointed,  but  when  she  went  on  to  say  how 
anxious  she  was  that  the  driver  should  get 
173 


The    Flight    of  Pony   Baker 

Frank  and  his  brother  home  before  dark, 
he  brightened  up  all  of  a  sudden,  and  he 
asked,  "Is  Frank  going  bcick?"  and  he 
looked  down  into  Frank's  face  and  smiled, 
as  most  people  did  when  they  looked  into 
Frank's  face,  and  he  asked,  "What's  the 
reason  Frank  couldn't  take  it?" 

Mrs.  Baker  put  her  arm  across  Frank's 
breast  and  pulled  him  away,  and  said,  "  In 
deed,  indeed,  the  child  just  sha'n't,  and  that's 
all  about  it!" 

But  Mr.  Bushell  took  the  boy  by  the  arm 
and  laughed.  "Let's  feel  how  deep  your 
pants'  pocket  is/'  he  said;  and  he  put  his 
hand  into  the  pocket  of  Frank's  nankeen 
trousers  and  felt;  and  then,  before  Mrs.  Baker 
could  stop  him,  he  drew  a  roll  of  bank-notes 
out  of  his  own  pocket  and  pushed  it  into 
Frank's.  "There,  it's  just  a  fit!  Do  you 
think  you'd  lose  it?" 

"  No,  he  wouldn't  lose  it,"  said  his  mother, 
"and  that's  just  it!  He'd  worry  about  it 
every  minute,  and  I  would  worry  about 
him!" 

She  tried  to  make  the  merchant  take  the 

174 


The  Adventures  of  Pony's  Cousin 

money  back,  but  he  kept  joking ;  and  then  he 
turned  serious,  and  told  her  that  the  money 
had  to  be  put  in  the  bank  to  pay  a  note,  and 
he  did  not  know  any  way  to  get  it  to  his 
partner  if  she  would  not  let  Frank  take  it; 
that  he  was  at  his  wits'  end.  He  said  he 
would  as  lief  trust  it  with  Frank  as  with 
any  man  he  knew ;  that  nobody  would  think 
the  boy  had  any  money  with  him;  and  he 
fairly  begged  her  to  let  Frank  take  it  for 
him. 

He  talked  to  her  so  much  that  she  began  to 
give  way  a  little.  She  felt  proud  of  his  being 
willing  to  trust  Frank,  and  at  last  she  con 
sented.  Mr.  Bushell  explained  that  he  wish 
ed  his  partner  to  have  the  money  that  even 
ing,  and  she  had  to  agree  to  let  Frank  carry 
it  to  him  as  soon  as  he  got  home. 

The  Boy's  Town  was  built  on  two  sides  of 
a  river.  Mr.  Bushell's  store  was  across  the 
river  from  where  the  Bakers  lived,  and  she 
said  she  did  not  want  the  child  to  have  to 
go  through  the  bridge  after  dark.  Perhaps 
it  was  her  anxiety  about  this  that  began  the 
whole  trouble ;  for  when  the  driver  came  with 
175 


The    Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

the  carriage,  she  could  not  help  asking  him 
if  he  was  sure  to  get  home  before  sundown. 
That  made  him  drive  faster  than  he  might 
have  done,  perhaps;  at  any  rate,  he  set  off 
at  a  quick  trot  after  Mr.  Bushell  had  helped 
put  the  two  boys  in.  Mrs.  Baker  gathered 
her  little  girls  together  and  went  back  to  the 
boat  with  her  heart  in  her  mouth,  as  she 
afterwards  said. 

The  driver  got  out  of  the  city  without 
trouble,  but  when  he  came  to  the  smooth 
turnpike  road,  it  seemed  to  Frank  that  the 
horses  kept  going  faster  and  faster,  till  they 
were  fairly  flying  over  the  ground.  The 
driver  pulled  and  pulled  at  the  reins,  and 
people  began  to  hollo,  "  Look  out  where  you're 
going \"  when  they  met  them  or  passed  them, 
and  all  at  once  Frank  began  to  think  the 
horses  were  running  away.  He  had  not 
much  chance  to  think  about  it,  though,  he 
was  so  busy  keeping  his  little  brother  from 
bouncing  off  the  seat  and  out  of  the  carriage, 
and  in  feeling  if  Mr.  Bushell's  money  was 
safe;  and  he  was  not  certain  that  they  were 
running  away  till  he  saw  people  stopping 

176 


The  Adventures  of  Pony's  Cousin 

and  staring,  and  then  starting  after  the 
carriage. 

The  horses  tore  along  for  two  or  three 
miles;  they  thundered  through  the  covered 
bridge  on  Mill's  Creek,  and  passed  the  Four- 
Mile  House.  By  the  time  they  reached  the 
little  village  beyond  it  they  had  the  turn 
pike  to  themselves;  every  team  coming  and 
going  drove  into  the  gutter. 

At  the  village  a  large,  fat  butcher,  who  was 
sitting  tilted  back  in  a  chair  at  the  door  of  his 
shop,  saw  the  carriage  coming  in  a  whirlwind 
of  dust,  and  he  knew  what  the  matter  was. 
There  was  a  horse  standing  at  the  hitching 
rail,  and  the  butcher  just  had  time  to  untie 
him  and  jump  into  the  saddle  when  the  run 
aways  flew  by.  He  took  after  them  as  fast 
as  his  horse  could  go,  and  overhauled  them 
at  the  end  of  the  next  bridge  and  brought 
them  to  a  stand. 

It  had  really  been  nothing  but  a  race 
against  time.  No  one  was  hurt;  the  horses 
were  pretty  badly  blown,  that  was  all;  but 
the  carriage  was  so  much  shaken  up  that  it 
had  to  be  left  at  a  wagon-shop,  where  it  could 
177 


The   Flight    of  Pony   Bakef 

not  be  mended  till  morning.  The  two  boys 
were  taken  back  to  Four-Mile  House,  where 
they  would  have  to  pass  the  night. 

Frank  \vorried  about  his  father,  who  would 
be  expecting  them  home  that  evening;  but 
he  was  glad  his  mother  did  not  know  what 
had  happened.  He  was  thankful  enough 
when  he  felt  his  brother  all  over  and  found 
him  safe  and  sound,  and  then  put  his  hand 
on  his  pocket  and  found  that  Mr.  Bushell's 
money  was  still  there.  He  did  not  eat  very 
much  supper,  and  he  went  to  bed  early,  after 
he  had  put  his  brother  in  bed  and  seen  him 
fall  asleep  almost  before  he  got  through  his 
prayers. 

Frank  was  very  tired,  and  pretty  sore  from 
the  jouncing  in  the  carriage;  but  he  was  too 
worried  to  be  sleepy.  He  began  to  think, 
What  if  some  one  should  get  Mr.  Bushell's 
money  away  from  him  in  the  night,  while 
he  was  asleep?  And  then  he  was  glad  that 
he  did  not  feel  like  sleeping.  He  got  up  and 
put  on  his  clothes  and  sat  down  by  the  win 
dow,  listening  to  his  brother's  breathing  and 
looking  out  into  the  dark  at  the  heat-light- 


The  Adventures  of  Pony's  Cousin 

ning  in  the  west.  The  day  had  been  very 
hot  and  the  night  was  close,  without  a  breath 
of  wind.  By  -  and  -  by  all  the  noises  about 
the  house  died  away,  and  he  knew  every 
body  had  gone  to  bed.  The  lantern  under 
the  tavern  porch  threw  a  dim  light  out  into 
the  road ;  some  dogs  barked  away  off.  There 
was  no  other  sound,  and  the  stillness  was 
awful.  He  kept  his  hand  on  the  pocket  that 
had  the  money  in  it. 

After  a  while  Frank  began  to  feel  very 
drowsy,  and  he  thought  he  would  lie  down 
again,  but  he  promised  himself  he  would  not 
sleep,  and  he  did  not  undress ;  for  if  he  took 
his  pantaloons  off,  he  did  not  know  how  he 
could  make  sure  every  minute  that  the  money 
was  safe,  unless  he  put  it  under  his  pillow. 
He  was  afraid  if  he  did  that  he  might  for 
get  it  in  the  morning,  and  leave  it  when  he 
got  up. 

He  stretched  himself  on  the  bed  beside  his 
brother,  and  it  seemed  to  him  that  it  was 
hardly  a  second  before  he  heard  a  loud  crash 
that  shook  the  whole  house;  and  the  room 
looked  full  of  fire.  Another  crash  came,  and 
179 


The   flight    of  Pony    Bake? 

then  another,  with  a  loud,  stony  kind  of 
rolling  noise  that  seemed  to  go  round  the 
world.  Then  he  knew  that  he  had  been 
asleep,  and  that  this  dreadful  noise  was  the 
swift  coming  of  a  thunder-storm. 

It  was  the  worst  storm  that  was  ever 
known  in  Mill  Creek  Valley,  so  the  people 
said  afterwards,  but  as  yet  it  was  only  be 
ginning.  The  thunder  was  deafening,  and 
it  never  stopped  a  moment.  The  lightning 
hardly  stopped,  either;  it  filled  the  room 
with  a  quivering  blaze;  at  times,  when  it 
died  down,  the  night  turned  black  as  ink, 
and  then  a  flash  came  that  lit  up  the  fields 
outside,  and  showed  every  stick  and  stone 
as  bright  as  the  brightest  day. 

Frank  was  dazed  at  first  by  the  glare  and 
the  noise;  then  he  jumped  out  of  bed,  and 
tried  for  two  things:  whether  the  money 
was  still  safe  in  his  pocket,  and  whether 
his  brother  was  alive.  He  never  could  tell 
which  he  found  out  first ;  as  soon  as  he  knew, 
he  felt  a  little  bit  better,  but  still  his  cheer 
fulness  was  not  anything  to  brag  of. 

If  his  brother  was  alive,  it  seemed  to  be 
180 


The  Adventures  of  Pony's  Cousin 

more  than  any  one  else  in  the  house  was 
besides  himself.  He  could  not  hear  a  soul 
stirring,  although  in  that  uproar  there  might 
have  been  a  full-dress  parade  of  the  Butler 
Guards  in  the  tavern,  firing  off  their  guns, 
and  he  could  not  have  heard  them.  He 
looked  out  in  the  entry,  but  it  was  all  dark 
there  except  when  he  let  the  flashes  of  his 
room  into  it.  He-  thought  he  would  light 
his  candle,  for  company,  and  so  that  the 
lightning  would  not  be  so  awfully  bright. 
He  found  his  candlestick  easily  enough — 
he  could  have  found  a  pin  in  that  glare — 
but  there  were  no  matches. 

So  he  decided  to  get  along  without  the 
candle.  Every  now  and  then  he  put  his 
hand  in  his  pocket,  or  on  the  bulge  outside, 
to  make  sure  of  the  money;  and  whenever 
a  very  bright  flash  came,  he  would  listen 
for  his  brother's  breathing,  to  tell  whether 
he  had  been  struck  by  lightning  or  not.  But 
it  kept  thundering  so  that  sometimes  he 
could  not  hear.  Then  Frank  would  shake 
him  till  the  boy  gave  a  sort  of  snort,  and  that 
proved  that  he  was  still  alive;  or  he  would 
181 


The   Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

put  his  ear  to  his  brother's  breast,  and  listen 
whether  his  heart  was  beating. 

It  always  was,  and  by  -  and  -  by  the  rain 
began  to  fall.  It  fell  in  perfect  sheets,  and 
the  noise  it  made  could  be  heard  through 
the  thunder.  But  Frank  had  always  heard 
that  after  it  began  to  rain,  a  thunder-storm 
was  not  so  dangerous,  and  the  air  got  fresher. 
Still,  it  blazed  and  bellowed  away,  he  could 
never  tell  how  long,  and  it  seemed  to  him 
that  he  must  have  felt  a  thousand  times  for 
Mr.  BushelFs  money,  and  tried  a  thousand 
times  to  find  whether  his  brother  had  been 
struck  by  lightning  or  not.  Once  or  twice 
he  thought  he  would  call  for  help;  but  he  did 
not  think  he  could  make  anybody  hear,  and 
he  was  too  much  ashamed  to  do  it,  anyway. 

Between  the  times  of  feeling  for  the  money 
and  seeing  whether  his  brother  was  alive,  he 
thought  about  his  mother:  how  frightened 
she  would  be  if  she  knew  what  had  happened 
to  him  and  his  brother,  after  they  left  her. 
And  he  thought  of  his  father :  how  troubled 
he  must  be  at  their  not  getting  home.  It 
seemed  to  him  that  he  must  be  to  blame, 
182 


The  Adventures  of  Pony's  Cousin 

somehow,  but  he  could  not  understand  how, 
exactly;  and  he  could  not  think  of  any  way 
to  help  it. 

He  wondered  if  the  storm  was  as  bad  on 
the  river  and  in  the  Boy's  Town,  and  whether 
the  lightning  would  strike  the  boat  or  the 
house;  the  house  had  a  lightning-rod,  but 
the  boat  could  not  have  one,  of  course.  He 
felt  pretty  safe  about  his  father  and  the 
older-younger  brother  who  had  been  left  at 
home  with  him;  but  he  was  not  sure  about 
his  mother  and  sisters,  and  he  tried  to  im 
agine  what  people  did  on  a  steamboat  in  a 
thunder-storm. 

After  a  long  time  had  passed,  and  he 
thought  it  must  be  getting  near  morning, 
he  lay  down  again  beside  his  brother,  and 
fell  into  such  a  heavy  sleep  that  he  did  not 
wake  till  it  was  broad  day,  and  the  sun  was 
making  as  much  blaze  in  the  curtainless 
tavern -room  as  the  lightning  had  made. 
The  storm  was  over,  and  everything  was  as 
peaceful  as  if  there  had  never  been  any  such 
thing  as  a  storm  in  the  world.  The  first 
thing  he  did  was  to  make  a  grab  for  his 

183 


The  Flight  of  Pony  Baker 

pocket.  The  money  was  still  there,  and  his 
brother  sleeping  as  soundly  as  ever. 

After  breakfast,  the  livery-stable  man  came 
with  the  carriage,  which  he  had  got  mended, 
and  Frank  started  home  with  his  brother  once 
more.  But  they  had  sixteen  miles  to  go 
before  they  would  reach  the  Boy's  Town, 
and  the  carriage  had  been  so  badly  shat 
tered,  or  else  the  driver  was  so  much  afraid 
of  the  horses,  that  he  would  not  let  them  go 
at  more  than  a  walk.  Frank  was  anxious 
to  get  home  on  his  father's  account;  still 
he  would  rather  get  home  safe,  and  he  did 
not  try  to  hurry  the  driver,  for  fear  they 
might  not  get  home  at  all. 

It  was  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  when 
they  stopped  at  his  father's  house.  His  older- 
younger  brother,  and  the  hired  girl,  whom 
his  mother  had  got  to  keep  house  while  she 
was  gone  on  her  visit,  came  out  and  took 
his  little  brother  in ;  and  the  girl  told  Frank 
his  father  had  just  been  there  to  see  whether 
he  had  got  back.  Then  he  knew  that  his 
father  must  have  been  as  anxious  as  he  had 
been  afraid  he  was.  He  did  not  wait  to  go 


The  Adventures  of  Pony's  Cousin 

inside;  he  only  kicked  off  the  shoes  he  wore 
to  the  city  and  started  off  for  his  father's 
office  as  fast  as  his  bare  feet  could  carry  him. 

He  found  his  father  at  the  door.  He  did 
not  say  very  much,  but  Frank  could  see  by 
his  face  that  he  had  been  worrying;  and 
afterwards  he  said  that  he  was  just  going 
round  to  the  livery  stable  the  next  minute 
to  get  another  team,  and  go  down  towards 
the  city  to  see  what  had  become  of  them  all. 
Frank  told  him  what  had  happened,  and  his 
father  put  his  arms  round  him,  but  still  did 
not  say  much.  He  did  not  say  anything  at 
all  about  Mr.  Bushell's  money  or  seem  to 
think  about  it  till  Frank  asked: 

"I'd  better  take  it  right  straight  over  to 
his  store,  hadn't  I,  father?" 

His  father  said  he  reckoned  he  had,  and 
Frank  started  away  on  the  run  again.  He 
wanted  to  get  rid  of  that  money  so  badly, 
for  it  was  all  he  had  to  worry  about,  after 
he  had  got  rid  of  his  brother,  that  he  was 
out  of  breath,  almost,  by  the  time  he  reached 
Mr.  Bushell's  store.  But  even  then  he  could 
not  get  rid  of  the  money.  Mr.  Bushell  had 

185 


The  Flight   of  Pony  Baker 

told  him  to  give  it  to  his  partner,  but  his 
partner  had  gone  out  into  the  country,  and 
was  not  to  be  back  till  after  supper. 

Frank  did  not  know  what  to  do.  He  did 
not  dare  to  give  it  to  any  one  else  in  the  store, 
and  it  seemed  to  him  that  the  danger  of  hav 
ing  it  got  worse  every  minute.  He  hung 
about  a  good  while,  and  kept  going  in  and 
out  of  the  store,  but  at  last  he  thought  the 
best  thing  would  be  to  go  home  and  ask 
his  father;  and  that  was  what  he  did. 

By  this  time  his  father  had  gone  home  to 
supper,  and  he  found  him  there  with  his  two 
younger  brothers,  feeling  rather  lonesome, 
with  Frank's  mother  and  his  sisters  all 
away.  But  they  cheered  up  together,  and 
his  father  said  he  had  done  right  not  to  leave 
the  money,  and  he  would  just  step  over, 
after  supper,  and  give  it  himself  to  Mr. 
Bushell's  partner.  He  took  the  roll  of  bills 
from  Frank  and  put  it  into  his  own  pocket, 
and  went  on  eating  his  supper,  but  when 
they  were  done  he  gave  the  bills  back  to  the 
boy. 

"After  all,  Frank,  I  believe  I'll  let  you 
186 


The  Adventures  of  Pony's  Cousin 

take  that  money  to  Mr.  Bushell's  partner. 
He  trusted  it  to  you,  and  you  ought  to  have 
the  glory;  you've  had  the  care.  Do  you 
think  you  11  be  afraid  to  come  home  through 
the  bridge  after  sunset?" 

The  bridge  was  one  of  those  old-fashioned, 
wooden  ones,  roofed  in  and  sided  up,  and  it 
stretched  from  shore  to  shore,  like  a  tunnel, 
on  its  piers.  It  was  rather  dim,  even  in  the 
middle  of  the  brightest  day,  and  none  of 
the  boys  liked  to  be  caught  in  it  after  sunset. 

Frank  said  he  did  not  believe  he  should 
be  afraid,  for  it  seemed  to  him  that  if  he  had 
got  through  a  runaway,  and  such  a  thunder 
storm  as  that  was  the  night  before,  without 
harm,  he  could  surely  get  through  the  bridge 
safely.  There  was  not  likely  to  be  anybody 
in  it,  at  the  worst,  but  Indian  Jim,  or  Solo 
mon  Whistler,  the  crazy  man,  and  he  be 
lieved  he  could  run  by  them  if  they  offered 
to  do  anything  to  him.  He  meant  to  walk 
as  slowly  as  he  could,  until  he  reached  the 
bridge,  and  then  just  streak  through  it. 

That  was  what  he  did,  and  it  was  still 
quite  light  when  he  reached  Mr.  Bushell's 

187- 


The  Flight  of  Pony   Baker 

store.  His  partner  was  there,  sure  enough, 
this  time,  and  Frank  gave  him  the  money, 
and  told  him  how  he  had  been  so  long  bring 
ing  it.  The  merchant  thanked  him,  and 
said  he  was  rather  young  to  be  trusted  with 
so  much  money,  but  he  reckoned  Mr.  Bushel! 
knew  what  he  was  about. 

"  Did  he  count  it  when  he  gave  it  to  you?" 
he  asked. 

"No,  he  didn't,"  said  Frank. 

"Did  you?" 

"I  didn't  have  a  chance.  He  put  it  right 
into  my  pocket,  and  I  was  afraid  to  take  it 
out." 

Mr.  Bushell's  partner  laughed,  and  Frank 
was  going  away,  so  as  to  get  through  the 
bridge  before  it  was  any  darker,  but  Mr. 
Bushell's  partner  said,  "  Just  hold  on  a  min 
ute,  won't  you,  Frank,  till  I  count  this,"  and 
he  felt  as  if  his  heart  had  jumped  into  his 
throat. 

What  if  he  had  lost  some  of  the  money? 

What  if  somebody  had  got  it  out  of  his  pocket, 

while  he  was  so  dead  asleep,  and  taken  part 

of  it?    What  if  Mr.   Bushell  had  made  a 

188 


The  Adventures  of  Pony's  Cousin 

mistake,  and  not  given  him  as  much  as  he 
thought  he  had?  He  hardly  breathed  while 
Mr.  Bushell's  partner  slowly  counted  the 
bank-notes.  It  took  him  a  long  time,  and 
he  had  to  wet  his  finger  a  good  many  times, 
and  push  the  notes  to  keep  them  from  stick 
ing  together.  At  last  he  finished,  and  he 
looked  at  Frank  over  the  top  of  his  specta 
cles.  "Two  thousand?"  he  asked. 

"  That's  what  Mr.  Bushell  said/'  answered 
the  boy,  and  he  could  hardly  get  the  words 
out. 

"Well,  it's  all  here/'  said  Mr.  Bushell's 
partner,  and  he  put  the  money  in  his  pocket, 
and  Frank  turned  and  went  out  of  the  store. 

He  felt  light,  light  as  cotton,  and  gladder 
than  he  almost  ever  was  in  his  life  before. 
He  was  so  glad  that  he  forgot  to  be  afraid 
in  the  bridge.  The  fellows  who  were  the 
most  afraid  always  ran  through  the  bridge, 
and  those  who  tried  not  to  be  afraid  walked 
fast  and  whistled.  Frank  did  not  even  think 
to  whistle. 

His  father  was  sitting  out  on  the  front 
porch  when  he  reached  home,  and  he  asked 
1 80 


The  Flight   of   Pony    Bakef 

Frank  if  he  had  got  rid  of  his  money,  and 
what  Mr.  Bushell's  partner  had  said.  Frank 
told  him  all  about  it,  and  after  a  while  his 
father  asked,  "  Well,  Frank,  do  you  like  to 
have  the  care  of  money?" 

"I  don't  believe  I  do,  father/' 

"Which  was  the  greater  anxiety  to  you 
last  night,  Mr.  Bushell's  money,  or  your 
brother?" 

Frank  had  to  think  awhile.  "  Well,  I  sup 
pose  it  was  the  money,  father.  You  see,  it 
wasn't  my  own  money." 

"And  if  it  had  been  your  own  money, 
you  wouldn't  have  been  anxious  about  it? 
You  wouldn't  have  cared  if  you  had  lost  it, 
or  somebody  had  stolen  it  from  you?" 

Frank  thought  again,  and  then  he  said 
he  did  not  believe  he  had  thought  about 
that. 

"Well,  think  about  it  now." 

Frank  tried  to  think,  and  at  last  he  said. 
"I  reckon  I  should  have  cared/' 

"And  if  it  had  been  your  own  money, 
would  you  have  been  more  anxious  about  it 
than  about  your  brother?" 
190 


The  Adventures  of  Pony's  Cousin 

This  time  Frank  was  more  puzzled  than 
ever;  he  really  did  not  know  what  to  say. 

His  father  said :  "  The  trouble  with  money 
is,  that  people  who  have  a  great  deal  of  it 
seem  to  be  more  anxious  about  it  than  they 
are  about  their  brothers,  and  they  think  that 
the  things  it  can  buy  are  more  precious  than 
the  things  which  all  the  money  in  the  world 
cannot  buy."  His  father  stood  up.  "  Better 
go  to  bed,  Frank.  You  must  be  tired.  There 
won't  be  any  thunder  -  storm  to  -  night,  and 
you  haven't  got  a  pocketful  of  money  to 
keep  you  awake/' 


XI 


HOW  JIM  LEONARD  PLANNED  FOR  PONY 
BAKER  TO  RUN  OFF  ON  A  RAFT 

NOW  we  have  got  to  go  back  to  Pony 
Baker  again.  The  summer  went  along 
till  it  got  to  be  September,  and  the  fellows 
were  beginning  to  talk  about  when  school 
would  take  up.  It  was  almost  too  cold  to 
go  in  swimming;  that  is,  the  air  made  you 
shiver  when  you  came  out,  and  before  you 
got  your  clothes  on;  but  if  you  stood  in  the 
water  up  to  your  chin,  it  seemed  warmer 
than  it  did  on  the  hottest  days  of  summer. 
Only  now  you  did  not  want  to  go  in  more 
than  once  a  day,  instead  of  four  or  five  times. 
The  fellows  were  gathering  chinquapin 
acorns  most  of  the  time,  and  some  of  them 
were  getting  ready  to  make  wagons  to  gather 
walnuts  in.  Once  they  went  out  to  the  woods 
192 


Jim    Leonard's    Plan 

for  pawpaws,  and  found  about  a  bushel; 
they  put  them  in  cornmeal  to  grow,  but  they 
were  so  green  that  they  only  got  rotten. 
The  boys  found  an  old  shanty  in  the  woods 
where  the  farmer  made  sugar  in  the  spring, 
and  some  of  the  big  fellows  said  they  were 
coming  out  to  sleep  in  it,  the  first  night  they 
got. 

It  was  this  that  put  Jim  Leonard  in  mind 
of  Pony's  running  off  again.  All  the  way 
home  he  kept  talking  to  Pony  about  it,  and 
Pony  said  he  was  going  to  do  it  yet,  some 
time,  but  when  Jim  Leonard  wanted  him  to 
tell  the  time,  he  would  only  say,  "You'll 
see,"  and  wag  his  head. 

Then  Jim  Leonard  mocked  him  and  dared 
him  to  tell,  and  asked  him  if  he  would  take 
a  dare.  After  that  he  made  up  with  him, 
and  said  if  Pony  would  run  off  he  would 
run  off,  too;  and  that  the  way  for  them  to 
do  would  be  to  take  the  boards  of  that  shan 
ty  in  the  woods  and  build  a  raft.  They 
could  do  it  easily,  because  the  boards  were 
just  leaned  up  against  the  ridge  -  pole,  and 
they  could  tie  them  together  with  pawpaw 
•3  193 


The   Flight    of  Pony    Baker 


switches,  they  were  so  tough,  and  then  some 
night  carry  the  raft  to  the  river,  after  the 
water  got  high  in  the  fall,  and  float  down 
on  it  to  the  city. 

"Why,  does  the  river  go  past  the  city?" 
Pony  asked. 

"Of  course  it  does,"  said  Jim  Leonard, 
and  he  laughed  at  Pony.  "  It  runs  into  the 
Ohio  there.  Where's  your  geography?" 

Pony  was  ashamed  to  say  that  he  did  not 
suppose  that  geography  had  anything  to  do 
with  the  river  at  the  Boy's  Town,  for  it  was 
not  down  on  the  map,  like  Behring  Straits 
and  the  Isthmus  of  Suez.  But  he  saw  that 
Jim  Leonard  really  knew  something.  He  did 
not  see  the  sense  of  carrying  the  raft  two 
miles  through  the  woods  when  you  could 
get  plenty  of  drift-wood  on  the  river  shore 
to  make  a  raft  of.  But  he  did  not  like  to 
say  it  for  fear  Jim  Leonard  would  think  he 
was  afraid  to  be  in  the  woods  after  dark, 
and  after  that  he  came  under  him  more  than 
ever.  Most  of  the  fellows  just  made  fun 
of  Jim  Leonard,  because  they  said  he  was 
a  brag,  but  Pony  began  to  believe  every- 
194 


Jim    Leonard's    Plan 

thing  he  said  when  he  found  out  that  he 
knew  where  the  river  went  to;  Pony  had 
never  even  thought. 

Jim  was  always  talking  about  their  plan 
of  running  off  together,  now;  and  he  said 
they  must  fix  everything  so  that  it  would 
not  fail  this  time.  If  they  could  only  get 
to  the  city  once,  they  could  go  for  cabin- 
boys  on  a  steamboat  that  was  bound  for  New 
Orleans ;  and  down  the  Mississippi  they  could 
easily  hide  on  some  ship  that  was  starting 
for  the  Spanish  Main,  and  then  they  would 
be  all  right.  Jim  knew  about  the  Spanish 
Main  from  a  book  of  pirate  stories  that  he 
had.  He  had  a  great  many  books  and  he  was 
always  reading  them.  One  was  about  Ind 
ians,  and  one  was  about  pirates,  and  one 
was  about  dreams  and  signs,  and  one  was 
full  of  curious  stories,  and  one  told  about 
magic  and  how  to  do  jugglers'  tricks;  the 
other  was  a  fortune- telling  book.  Jim  Leon 
ard  had  a  paper  from  the  city,  with  long 
stories  in,  and  he  had  read  a  novel  once ;  he 
could  not  tell  the  boys  exactly  what  a  novel 
was,  but  that  was  what  it  said  on  the  back. 
195 


The   Flight    of  Pony   Baker 

After  Pony  and  he  became  such  friends  he 
told  him  everything  that  was  in  his  books, 
and  once,  when  Pony  went  to  his  house,  he 
showed  him  the  books.  Pony  was  a  little 
afraid  of  Jim  Leonard's  mother;  she  was  a 
widow  woman,  and  took  in  washing;  she 
lived  in  a  little  wood-colored  house  down  by 
the  river-bank,  and  she  smoked  a  pipe.  She 
was  a  very  good  mother  to  Jim,  and  let  him 
do  whatever  he  pleased — go  in  swimming 
as  much  as  he  wanted  to,  stay  out  of  school, 
or  anything.  He  had  to  catch  drift-wood 
for  her  to  burn  when  the  river  was  high; 
once  she  came  down  to  the  river  herself  and 
caught  drift-wood  with  a  long  pole  that  had 
a  nail  in  the  end  of  it  to  catch  on  with. 

By  the  time  school  took  up  Pony  and  Jim 
Leonard  were  such  great  friends  that  they 
asked  the  teacher  if  they  might  sit  together, 
and  they  both  had  the  same  desk.  When 
Pony's  mother  heard  that,  it  seemed  as  if 
she  were  going  to  do  something  about  it. 
She  said  to  his  father: 

"  I  don't  like  Pony's  going  with  Jim  Leon 
ard  so  much.  He's  had  nobody  else  with 


Jim    Leonard's    Plan 

him  for  two  weeks,  and  nowr  he's  sitting 
with  him  in  school." 

Pony's  father  said,  "I  don't  believe  Jim 
Leonard  will  hurt  Pony.  What  makes  you 
like  him,  Pony?" 

Pony  said,  "Oh,  nothing,"  and  his  father 
laughed. 

"It  seems  to  be  a  case  of  pure  affection. 
What  do  you  talk  about  together?" 

"Oh,  dreams,  and  magic,  and  pirates," 
said  Pony. 

His  father  laughed,  but  his  mother  said, 
"I  know  he'll  put  mischief  in  the  child's 
head,"  and  then  Pony  thought  how  Jim 
Leonard  always  wanted  him  to  run  off,  and 
he  felt  ashamed;  but  he  did  not  think  that 
running  off  was  mischief,  or  else  all  the 
boys  would  not  be  wanting  to  do  it,  and  so 
he  did  not  say  anything. 

His  father  said,  "I  don't  believe  there's 
any  harm  in  the  fellow.  He's  a  queer  chap. " 

"He's  so  low  down,"  said  Pony's  mother. 

"Well,  he  has  a  chance  to  rise,  then." 
said  Pome's  father.  "  We  may  all  be  hurrah 
ing  for  him  for  President  some  day."  Pony 
197 


The   Flight    of  Pony  Baker 

could  not  always  tell  when  his  father  was 
joking,  but  it  seemed  to  him  he  must  be 
joking  now.  "  I  don't  believe  Pony  will  get 
any  harm  from  sitting  with  him  in  school, 
at  an3^  rate/' 

After  that  Pony's  mother  did  not  say  any 
thing,  but  he  knew  that  she  had  taken  a 
spite  to  Jim  Leonard,  and  when  he  brought 
him  home  with  him  after  school  he  did  not 
bring  him  into  the  woodshed  as  he  did  with 
the  other  boys,  but  took  him  out  to  the  barn. 
That  got  them  to  playing  in  the  barn  most 
of  the  time,  and  they  used  to  stay  in  the  hay 
loft,  where  Jim  Leonard  told  Pony  the  sto 
ries  out  of  his  books.  It  was  good  and  warm 
there,  and  now  the  days  were  getting  chilly 
towards  evenings. 

Once,  when  they  were  lying  in  the  hay 
together,  Jim  Leonard  said,  all  of  a  sud 
den,  "Fve  thought  of  the  very  thing,  Pony 
Baker." 

Pony  asked,  "What  thing?" 

"How  to  get  ready  for  running  off,"  said 
Jim  Leonard,  and  at  that  Pony's  heart  went 
down,  but  he  did  not  like  to  show  it,  and  Jim 
198 


Jim    Leonard's    Plan 

Leonard  went  on:  "We've  got  to  provision 
the  raft,  you  know,  for  maybe  well  catch  on 
an  island  and  be  a  week  getting  to  the  city. 
We've  got  to  float  with  the  current,  anyway. 
Well,  now,  we  can  make  a  hole  in  the  hay 
here  and  hide  the  provisions  till  we're  ready 
to  go.  I  say  we'd  better  begin  hiding  them 
right  away.  Let's  see  if  we  can  make  a 
place.  Get  away,  Trip/' 

He  was  speaking  to  Pony's  dog,  that  al 
ways  came  out  into  the  barn  with  him  and 
stayed  below  in  the  carriage-room,  whining 
and  yelping  till  they  helped  him  up  the  ladder 
into  the  loft.  Then  he  always  lay  in  one 
corner,  with  his  tongue  out,  and  looking  at 
them  as  if  he  knew  what  they  were  saying. 
He  got  up  when  Jim  Leonard  bade  him,  and 
Jim  pulled  away  the  hay  until  he  got  down 
to  the  loft  floor. 

"Yes,  it's  the  very  place.  It's  all  solid, 
and  we  can  put  the  things  down  here  and 
cover  them  up  with  hay  and  nobody  will 
notice.  Now,  to-morrow  you  bring  out  a  piece 
of  bread-and-butter  with  meat  between,  and  I 
will,  too,  and  then  we  will  see  how  it  will  do. " 
199 


The   Flight    of   Pony    Baker 

Pony  brought  his  bread-and-butter  the 
next  day.  Jim  said  he  intended  to  bring 
some  hard-boiled  eggs,  but  his  mother  kept 
looking,  and  he  had  no  chance. 

"Let's  see  whether  the  butter's  sweet,  be 
cause  if  it  ain't  the  provisions  will  spoil  be 
fore  we  can  get  off." 

He  took  a  bite,  and  he  said,  "My,  that's 
nice!"  and  the  first  thing  he  knew  he  ate 
the  whole  piece  up.  "  Well,  never  mind,"  he 
said,  "we  can  begin  to-morrow  just  as  well." 

The  next  day  Jim  Leonard  brought  a  ham- 
bone,  to  cook  greens  with  on  the  raft.  He 
said  it  would  be  first-rate ;  and  Pony  brought 
bread-and-butter,  with  meat  between.  Then 
they  hid  them  in  the  hay,  and  drove  Trip 
away  from  the  place.  The  day  after  that, 
when  they  were  busy  talking,  Trip  dug  the 
provisions  up,  and,  before  they  noticed,  he 
ate  up  Pony's  bread-and-butter  and  was 
gnawing  Jim  Leonard's  ham -bone.  They 
cuffed  his  ears,  but  they  could  not  make  him 
give  it  up,  and  Jim  Leonard  said: 

"Well,  let  him  have  it,  It's  all  spoilt 
now,  anyway.  But  I'll  tell  you  what,  Pony 
200 


Jim    Leonard's   Plan 

— we've  got  to  do  something  with  that  dog. 
He's  found  out  where  we  keep  our  provi 
sions,  and  now  he'll  always  eat  them.  I  don't 
know  but  what  we'll  have  to  kill  him." 

"Oh  no!"  said  Pony.  "I  couldn't  kill 
Trip!" 

"Well,  I  didn't  mean  kill  him,  exactly; 
but  do  something.  I'll  tell  you  what — train 
him  not  to  follow  you  to  the  barn  when  he 
sees  you  going." 

Pony  thought  that  would  be  a  good  plan, 
and  he  began  the  next  day  at  noon.  Trip 
tried  to  follow  him  to  the  barn,  and  Pony 
kicked  at  him,  and  motioned  to  stone  him, 
and  said:  "Go  home,  sir!  Home  with  you! 
Home,  I  say!"  till  his  mother  came  to  the 
back  door. 

"Why,  what  in  the  world  makes  you  so 
cross  with  poor  Trip,  Pony?"  she  asked. 

"  I'll  teach  him  not  to  tag  me  round  every 
where,"  said  Pony. 

His  mother  said:  "Why,  I  thought  you 
liked  to  have  him  with  you?" 

"I'm  tired  of  it,"  said  Pony;  but  when  he 
put  his  mother  off  that  way  he  felt  badly, 

201 


The   Flight   of  Pony  Baker 

as  if  he  had  told  her  a  lie,  and  he  let  Trip 
come  with  him  and  began  to  train  him  again 
the  next  day. 

It  was  pretty  hard  work,  and  Trip  looked 
at  him  so  mournfully  when  he  drove  him 
back  that  he  could  hardly  bear  to  do  it ;  but 
Jim  Leonard  said  it  was  the  only  way,  and 
he  must  keep  it  up.  At  last  Trip  got  so  that 
he  would  not  follow  Pony  to  the  barn.  He 
would  look  at  him  when  Pony  started  and 
wag  his  tail  wistfully,  and  half  jump  a  little, 
and  then  when  he  saw  Pony  frown  he  would 
let  his  tail  drop  and  stay  still,  or  walk  off 
to  the  woodshed  and  keep  looking  around 
at  Pony  to  see  if  he  were  in  earnest.  It  made 
Pony's  heart  ache,  for  he  was  truly  fond  of 
Trip;  but  Jim  Leonard  said  it  was  the  only 
way,  and  so  Pony  had  to  do  it. 

They  provisioned  themselves  a  good  many 
times,  but  after  they  talked  a  while  they 
always  got  hungry,  or  Jim  Leonard  did,  and 
then  they  dug  up  their  provisions  and  ate 
them.  Once  when  he  came  to  spend  Satur 
day  afternoon  with  Pony  he  had  great  news 
to  tell  him.  One  of  the  boys  had  really  run 

202 


Jim    Leonard's    Plan 

off.  He  was  a  boy  that  Pony  had  never 
seen,  though  he  had  heard  of  him.  He 
lived  at  the  other  end  of  the  town,  below 
the  bridge,  and  almost  at  the  Sycamore 
Grove.  He  had  the  name  of  being  a  wild 
fellow;  his  father  was  a  preacher,  but  he 
could  not  do  anything  with  him. 

Now,  Jim  Leonard  said,  Pony  must  run 
off  right  awa}7,  and  not  wait  for  the  river  to 
rise,  or  anything.  As  soon  as  the  river  rose, 
Jim  would  follow  him  on  the  raft;  but  Pony 
must  start  first,  and  he  must  take  the  pike 
for  the  city,  and  sleep  in  fence  corners.  They 
must  provision  him,  and  not  eat  any  of  the 
things  before  he  started.  He  must  not  take 
a  bundle  or  anything,  because  if  he  did  people 
would  know  he  was  running  off,  or  maybe 
they  would  think  he  was  a  runaway  slave 
from  Kentucky,  he  was  so  dark-complexion 
ed.  At  first  Pony  did  not  like  it,  because  it 
seemed  to  him  that  Jim  Leonard  was  back 
ing  out;  but  Jim  Leonard  said  that  if  two 
of  them  started  off  at  the  same  time,  people 
would  just  know  they  were  running  off,  and 
the  constable  would  take  them  up  before  they 
203 


The   Flight   of  Pony    Baker 

could  get  across  the  corporation  line.  He 
said  that  very  likely  it  would  rain  in  less 
than  a  week,  and  then  he  could  start  after 
Pony  on  the  raft,  and  be  at  the  Ohio  River 
almost  as  soon  as  Pony  was. 

He  said,  "Why,  you  ain't  afraid,  are 
you,  Pony?"  And  Pony  said  he  was  not 
afraid ;  for  if  there  was  anything  that  a  Boy's 
Town  boy  hated,  it  was  to  be  afraid,  and 
Pony  hated  it  the  worst  of  any,  because  he 
was  sometimes  afraid  that  he  was  afraid. 

They  fixed  it  that  Pony  was  to  sleep  the 
next  Friday  night  in  the  barn,  and  the  next 
morning,  before  it  was  light,  he  was  to  fill 
his  pockets  with  the  provisions  and  run  off. 

Every  afternoon  he  took  out  a  piece  of 
bread-and-butter  with  meat  between  and  hid 
it  in  the  hay,  and  Jim  Leonard  brought  some 
eggs.  He  said  he  had  no  chance  to  boil 
them  without  his  mother  seeing,  but  he  asked 
Pony  if  he  did  not  know  that  raw  eggs  were 
first-rate,  and  when  Pony  said  no,  he  said, 
"Well,  they  are."  They  broke  one  of  the 
eggs  when  they  were  hiding  them,  and  it 
ran  over  the  bread-and-butter,  but  they 
204 


Jim   Leonard's    Plan 

wiped  it  off  with  hay  as  well  as  they  could, 
and  Jim  Leonard  said  maybe  it  would  help 
to  keep  it,  anyway. 

When  he  came  round  to  Pony's  house  the 
next  Friday  afternoon  from  school  he  asked 
him  if  he  had  heard  the  news,  and  when 
Pony  said  no,  he  said  that  the  fellow  that 
ran  off  had  been  taken  up  in  the  city  by  the 
watchman.  He  was  crying  on  the  street,  and 
he  said  he  had  nowhere  to  sleep,  and  had  not 
had  anything  to  eat  since  the  night  before. 

Pony's  heart  seemed  to  be  standing  still, 
lie  had  always  supposed  that  as  soon  as  he 
ran  off  he  should  be  free  from  all  the  things 
that  hindered  and  vexed  him;  and,  although 
he  expected  to  be  sorry  for  his  father  and 
mother,  he  expected  to  get  along  perfect^ 
well  without  them.  He  had  never  thought 
about  where  he  should  sleep  at  night  after  he 
got  to  the  city,  or  how  he  should  get  some 
thing  to  eat. 

"  Now,  you  see,  Pony/'  said  Jim  Leonard, 
"what  a  good  thing  it  was  that  I  thought 
about  provisioning  you  before  you  .started. 
What  makes  you  look  so?" 
205 


The   Flight    of  Pony    Baker 

Pony  said,  "I'm  not  looking!" 

Jim  Leonard  said,  "You're  not  afraid, 
are  you,  just  because  that  fellow  got  took 
up?  You're  not  such  a  cowardy-calf  as  to 
want  to  back  out  now?" 

The  tears  came  into  Pony's  eyes. 

"Cowardy-calf  yourself,  Jim  Leonard! 
You've  backed  out  long  ago!" 

"  You'll  see  whether  I've  backed  out,"  said 
Jim  Leonard.  "I'm  coming  round  to  sleep 
in  the  barn  with  you  to-night,  and  help  you 
to  get  a  good  start  in  the  morning.  And 
maybe  I'll  start  myself  to-morrow.  I  will 
if  I  can  get  anybody  to  help  me  make  the 
raft  and  bring  it  through  the  woods.  Now 
let's  go  up  into  the  loft  and  see  if  the  pro 
visions  are  all  safe." 

They  dug  the  provisions  up  out  of  the  hay 
and  Jim  Leonard  broke  one  of  the  eggs 
against  the  wall.  It  had  a  small  chicken 
in  it,  and  he  threw  it  away.  Another  egg 
smelt  so  that  they  could  hardly  stand  it. 

"  I  don't  believe  these  eggs  are  very  good," 
said  Jim  Leonard.  "  I  got  them  out  of  a  nest 
that  the  hen  had  left;  mother  said  I  might 
206 


Jim    Leonard's    Plan 

have  them  all."  He  broke  them  one  after 
another,  arid  every  one  had  a  chicken  in  it, 
or  else  it  was  bad.  "Well,  never  mind," 
he  said.  "Let's  see  what  the  bread- and- 
butter's  like."  He  bit  into  a  piece,  but  he 
did  not  swallow  any.  "Tastes  kind  of 
musty ;  from  the  hay,  I  reckon ;  and  the  meat 
seems  kind  of  old.  But  they  always  give 
the  sailors  spoilt  provisions,  and  this  bread- 
and-butter  will  do  you  first-rate,  Pony.  You'll 
be  so  hungry  you  can  eat  anything.  Say, 
you  ain't  afraid  now,  are  you,  Pony?" 

"No,  not  now,"  said  Pony,  but  he  did  not 
fire  up  this  time  as  he  did  before  at  the  no 
tion  of  his  being  afraid. 

Jim  Leonard  said,  "Because,  maybe  I 
can't  get  mother  to  let  me  come  here  again. 
If  she  takes  a  notion,  she  won't.  But  I'm 
going  to  watch  out,  and  as  soon  as  supper's 
over,  and  I've  got  the  cow  into  the  lot,  and 
the  morning's  wood  in,  I'm  going  to  try  to 
hook  off.  If  I  don't  get  here  to  stay  all  night 
with  you  I'll  be  around  bright  and  early  in 
the  morning,  to  wake  you  and  start  you.  It 
won't  be  light  now  much  before  six,  anyway. " 
207 


XII 


HOW   JIM    LEONARD   BACKED    OUT,   AND 
PONY  HAD  TO  GIVE  IT  UP 

IT  all  seemed  very  strange  to  Pony.  First, 
Jim  Leonard  was  going  to  run  off  with 
him  on  a  raft,  and  then  he  was  going  to 
have  Pony  go  by  land  and  follow  him  on 
the  raft;  then  suddenly  he  fixed  it  so  that 
Pony  was  going  alone,  and  he  was  going  to 
pass  the  last  night  with  him  in  the  barn; 
and  here,  all  at  once,  he  was  only  coming, 
maybe,  to  see  him  off  in  the  morning.  It 
made  Pony  feel  very  forlorn,  but  he  did  not 
like  to  say  anything  for  fear  Jim  Leonard 
would  call  him  cowardy-calf. 

It  was  near  sunset,  on  a  cool  day  in  the 

beginning   of  October,   and   the  wind   was 

stirring  the  dry  blades  in  the  corn-patch  at 

the  side  of  the  barn.     They  made  a  shivering 

208 


How  Jim  Leonard  Backed  Out 

sound,  and  it  made  Pony  lonesomer  and 
lonesomer.  He  did  not  want  to  run  off,  but 
he  did  not  see  how  he  could  help  it.  Trip 
stood  at  the  wood -house  door,  looking  at 
him,  but  he  did  not  dare  to  come  to  Pony 
as  long  as  he  was  near  the  barn.  But  when 
Pony  started  towards  the  house  Trip  came 
running  and  jumping  to  him,  and  Pony 
patted  him  and  said,  "Poor  Trip,  poor  old 
Trip!"  He  did  not  know  when  he  should 
see  such  another  dog  as  that. 

The  kitchen  door  was  open,  and  a  beauti 
ful  smell  of  frying  supper  was  coming  out. 
Pretty  soon  his  mother  came  to  the  open 
door,  and  stood  watching  him  patting  Trip. 
"Well,  have  you  made  up  with  poor  old 
Trip,  Pony?  Why  don't  you  come  in, 
child?  You  look  so  cold,  out  there/' 

Pony  did  not  say  anything,  but  he  came 
into  the  kitchen  and  sat  in  a  corner  beyond 
the  stove  and  watched  his  mother  getting  the 
supper.  In  the  dining-room  his  sisters  were 
setting  the  table  and  his  father  was  reading 
by  the  lamp  there.  Pony  would  have  given 
almost  anything  if  something  had  happened 
'*  209 


fhe  Flight  of  Pony 


just  to  make  him  tell  what  he  was  going  to 
do,  so  that  he  could  have  been  kept  from  do 
ing  it.  He  saw  that  his  mother  was  watch 
ing  him  all  the  time,  and  she  said  :  "  What 
makes  you  so  quiet,  child?" 

Pony  said,  "Oh,  nothing/'  and  his  mother 
asked,  "  Have  you  been  falling  out  with  Jim 
Leonard?" 

Pony  said  no,  and  then  she  said,  "  I  almost 
wish  you  had,  then.  I  don't  think  he's  a 
bad  boy,  but  he's  a  crazy  fool,  and  I  wish 
you  wouldn't  go  with  him  so  much.  I  don't 
like  him." 

All  of  a  sudden  Pony  felt  that  he  did  not 
like  Jim  Leonard  very  much  himself.  It 
seemed  to  him  that  Jim  Leonard  had  not 
used  him  very  well,  but  he  could  not  have 
told  how. 

After  supper  the  great  thing  was  how  to 
get  out  to  the  barn  without  any  one's  notic 
ing.  Pony  went  to  the  woodshed  door  two 
or  three  times  to  look  out.  There  were 
plenty  of  stars  in  the  sky,  but  it  seemed  very 
dark,  and  he  knew  that  it  would  be  as  black 
as  pitch  in  the  barn,  and  he  did  not  see  how 

210 


How  Jim  Leonard  Backed  Out 

he  could  ever  dare  to  go  out  to  it,  much  less 
into  it.  Every  time  he  came  back  from  look 
ing  he  brought  an  armload  of  wood  into  the 
kitchen  so  that  his  mother  would  not  notice. 

The  last  time  she  said,  "  Why,  you  dear, 
good  boy,  what  a  lot  of  wood  you're  bringing 
for  your  mother,"  for  usually  Pony  had  to  be 
told  two  or  three  times  before  he  would  get 
a  single  armload  of  wood. 

When  his  mother  praised  him  he  was 
ashamed  to  look  at  her,  and  so  he  looked 
round,  and  he  saw  the  lantern  hanging  by 
the  mantel-piece.  When  he  saw  that  lantern 
he  almost  wished  that  he  had  not  seen  it, 
for  now  he  knew  that  his  last  excuse  was 
gone,  and  he  would  really  have  to  run  off. 
If  it  had  not  been  for  the  lantern  he  could 
have  told  Jim  Leonard  that  he  was  afraid  to 
go  out  to  the  barn  on  account  of  ghosts,  for 
anybody  would  be  afraid  of  ghosts;  Jim 
Leonard  said  he  was  afraid  of  them  himself. 
But  now  Pony  could  easily  get  the  lantern 
and  take  it  out  to  the  barn  with  him,  and 
if  it  was  not  dark  the  ghosts  would  not  dare 
tq  touch  you. 

211 


Tfie  Flight  of  Pony  Bake? 

He  tried  to  think  back  to  the  beginning 
of  the  time  when  he  first  intended  to  run  off, 
and  find  out  if  there  was  not  some  way  of 
not  doing  it;  but  he  could  not,  and  if  Jim 
Leonard  was  to  come  to  the  barn  the  next 
morning  to  help  him  start,  and  should  not 
find  him  there,  Pony  did  not  know  what  he 
would  do.  Jim  Leonard  would  tell  all  the 
fellows,  and  Pony  would  never  hear  the  last 
of  it.  That  was  the  way  it  seemed  to  him, 
but  his  mind  felt  all  fuzzy,  and  he  could  not 
think  very  clearly  about  it. 

When  his  mother  finished  up  her  work  in 
the  kitchen  he  took  the  lantern  from  the  nail 
and  slipped  up  the  back  stairs  to  his  little 
room,  and  then,  after  he  heard  his  sisters  go 
ing  to  bed  and  his  father  and  mother  talking 
together  quietly,  he  lit  the  lantern  and  stole 
out  to  the  barn  with  it.  Nobody  noticed  him, 
and  he  got  safely  inside  the  barn.  He  used 
to  like  to  carry  the  lantern  very  much,  be 
cause  it  made  the  shadows  of  his  legs,  when 
he  walked,  go  like  scissors-blades,  and  that 
was  fun;  but  that  night  it  did  not  cheer  him 
up,  and  it  seemed  as  if  nothing  could  cheer 

212 


How  Jim  Leonard  Backed  Out 

him  up  again.  When  Trip  first  saw  him 
come  out  into  the  woodshed  with  the  lantern 
he  jumped  up  and  pawed  Pony  and  licked  the 
lantern,  he  was  so  glad,  but  when  Pony  went 
towards  the  barn  Trip  stopped  following 
him  and  went  back  into  the  wood-house  very 
sadly.  Pony  would  have  given  almost  any 
thing  to  have  Trip  come  with  him,  only,  as 
Jim  Leonard  said,  Trip  would  whine  or  bark, 
or  something,  and  then  Pony  would  be  found 
out  and  kept  from  running  off. 

The  more  he  wanted  to  be  kept  from  run 
ning  off  the  more  he  knew  he  must  not  try 
to  be,  and  he  let  Trip  go  back  when  he  would 
have  so  gladly  helped  him  up  into  the  hay 
loft  and  slept  with  him  there.  He  would  not 
have  been  afraid  with  Trip,  and  now  he 
found  that  he  was  dreadfully  afraid.  The 
lantern-light  was  a  charm  against  ghosts, 
but  not  against  rats,  and  the  first  thing 
Pony  knew  when  he  got  into  the  barn  a 
rat  ran  across  his  foot.  Trip  would  have 
kept  the  rats  off.  They  seemed  to  just 
swarm  in  the  loft  when  Pony  got  up  there, 
and  after  he  hung  the  lantern  on  a  nail  and 
213 


The  Flight  of  Pony   Baker 

lay  down  in  the  hay  they  did  not  mind  him 
at  all.  They  played  all  around,  and  two 
of  them  got  up  on  their  hind  legs  once  and 
fought,  or  else  danced,  Pony  could  not  tell 
which.  He  could  not  sleep,  and  after  a 
while  he  felt  the  tears  coming  and  he  began 
to  cry,  and  he  kept  sobbing,  and  could  not 
stop  himself. 

When  Pony's  mother  was  ready  to  go  to 
bed  she  said  to  Pony's  father:  "Did  Pony 
say  good-night  to  you?"  and  wrhen  he  said 
no,  she  said,  "But  he  must  have  gone  to 
bed/'  and  she  ran  up  the  stairs  to  see.  She 
came  down  again  in  about  half  a  second 
and  she  said, "  He  doesn't  seem  to  be  there," 
and  she  raced  all  through  the  house  hunting 
for  him.  In  the  kitchen  she  saw  that  the 
lantern  was  gone  and  then  she  said:  "1 
might  have  known  he  was  up  to  some  mis 
chief,  he  was  so  quiet.  This  is  some  more 
of  Jim  Leonard's  work.  Henry,  I  want  you 
to  go  right  out  and  look  for  Pony.  It's 
half-past  nine." 

Then  Pony's  father  knew  that  it  would  be 
no  use  to  talk  and  he  started  out.  But  the 
214 


How  Jim  Leonard  Backed  Out 

whole  street  was  quiet,  and  all  the  houses 
were  dark  as  if  the  people  had  gone  to  bed. 
He  went  up  town  and  to  all  the  places  where 
the  big  boys  were  apt  to  play  at  night,  and 
he  found  Hen  Billard  and  Archy  Hawkins, 
but  neither  of  them  had  seen  Pony  since 
school.  They  were  both  sitting  on  Hen  Bil- 
lard's  front  steps,  because  Archy  Hawkins 
was  going  to  stay  all  night  with  him,  and 
they  were  telling  stories.  When  Pony's  fa 
ther  asked  about  Pony  and  seemed  anxious 
they  tried  to  comfort  him,  but  they  could  not 
think  where  Pony  could  be.  They  said  per 
haps  Jim  Leonard  would  know. 

Then  Pony's  father  went  home,  and  the 
minute  he  opened  the  front  door  Pony's 
mother  called  out:  "Have  you  found  him?" 

His  father  said:  "No.  Hasn't  he  come 
in  yet?"  and  he  told  her  how  he  had  been 
looking  everywhere,  and  she  burst  out  cry 
ing. 

"  I  know  he's  fallen  into  the  canal  and  got 
drowned,  or  something/'  and  she  wrung  her 
hands  together;  and  then  he  said  that  Hen 
and  Archy  Hawkins  thought  Jim 
315 


The  Flight  of  Pony   Baker 

Leonard  would  know,  and  he  had  only 
stopped  to  see  whether  Pony  had  happened 
to  come  in,  and  he  was  going  straight  to 
Jim  Leonard's  mother's  house;  and  Pony's 
mother  said:  "Oh,  go,  go,  gol"  and  fairly 
pushed  him  out  of  the  house. 

By  this  time  it  was  ten  o'clock  and  going 
on  eleven,  and  all  the  town  was  as  still  as 
death,  except  the  dogs.  Pony's  father  kept 
on  until  he  got  down  to  the  river-bank,  where 
Jim  Leonard's  mother  lived,  and  he  had  to 
knock  and  knock  before  he  could  make  any 
body  hear.  At  last  Jim  Leonard's  mother 
poked  her  head  out  of  the  window  and  asked 
who  was  there,  and  Pony's  father  told  her. 

He  said :  "  Is  Jim  at  home,  Mrs.  Leonard?" 
and  she  said: 

"Yes,  and  fast  asleep  three  hours  ago. 
What  makes  you  ask?" 

Then  he  had  to  tell  her.  "We  can't  find 
Pony,  and  some  of  the  boys  thought  Jim 
might  know  where  he  is.  I'm  sorry  to  dis 
turb  you,  Mrs.  Leonard.  Good-night,"  and 
he  went  back  home. 

When  he  got  there  he  found  Pony's  mother 
216 


How  Jim  Leonard  Backed  Out 

about  crazy.  He  said  now  they  must  search 
the  house  thoroughly;  and  they  went  down 
into  the  cellar  first,  because  she  said  she 
knew  Pony  had  fallen  down  the  stairs  and 
killed  himself.  But  he  was  not  there,  and 
then  they  hunted  through  all  the  rooms  and 
looked  under  the  tables  and  beds  and  into 
the  cupboards  and  closets,  and  he  was  not 
there.  Then  they  went  into  the  wood-house 
and  looked  there,  and  up  into  the  wood-house 
loft  among  the  old  stoves  and  broken  furni 
ture,  and  he  was  not  there.  Trip  was  there, 
and  he  made  them  think  so-^of  Pony  that 
Pony's  mother  took  on  worse  than  she  had 
yet. 

"Now  I'm  going  out  to  look  in  the  barn/' 
said  Pony's  father.  "  You  stay  quietly  in  the 
house,  Lucy." 

Trip  started  to  go  with  Pony's  father,  but 
when  he  saw  that  he  was  going  to  the  barn 
he  was  afraid  to  follow  him,  Pony  had  trained 
him  so;  and  Pony's  father  went  alone.  He 
shaded  the  candle  that  he  was  carrying  with 
his  hand,  and  when  he  got  into  the  barn  he 
put  it  down  and  stood  and  looked  and  tried 
217 


The   Flight   of  Pony   Baker 

to  think  how  he  should  do.  It  was  dangerous 
to  go  around  among  the  hay  with  the  candle, 
and  the  lantern  was  gone. 

Almost  from  the  first  Pony's  father  thought 
that  he  heard  a  strange  noise  like  some  one 
sobbing,  and  then  it  seemed  to  him  that  there 
was  a  light  up  in  the  loft.  He  holloed  out : 
"Who's  there?"  and  then  the  noise  stopped, 
but  the  light  kept  on.  Pony's  father  holloed 
out  again :  "  Pony !  Is  that  you,  Pony?"  and 
then  Pony  answered,  "  Yes,"  and  he  began 
sobbing  again. 

In  less  than  half  a  second  Pony's  father 
was  up  in  the  loft,  and  then  down  again 
and  out  of  the  barn  and  into  the  yard  with 
Pony. 

His  mother  was  standing  at  the  back  door, 
for  she  could  not  bear  to  stay  in  the  house, 
and  Pony's  father  holloed  to  her:  "Here 
he  is,  Lucy,  safe  and  sound!"  and  Pony's 
mother  holloed  back: 

"Well,  don't  touch  him,  Henry!  Don't 
scold  the  child!  Don't  say  a  word  to  him! 
Oh,  I  could  just  fall  on  my  knees!" 

Pony's  father  came  along,  bringing  Pony 
318 


How  Jim  Leonard  Backed  Out 

and  the  lantern.  Pony's  hair  and  clothes 
were  all  stuck  full  of  pieces  of  hay,  and  his 
face  was  smeared  with  hay-dust  which  he  had 
rubbed  into  it  when  he  was  crying.  He  had 
got  some  of  Jim  Leonard's  mother's  hen's 
eggs  on  him,  and  he  did  not  smell  very  well. 
But  his  mother  did  not  care  how  he  looked 
or  how  he  smelled.  She  caught  him  up  into 
her  arms  and  just  fairty  hugged  him  into  the 
house,  and  there  she  sat  down  with  him  in  her 
arms,  and  kissed  his  dirty  face,  and  his  hair 
all  full  of  hay  -  sticks  and  spider  -  webs,  and 
cried  till  it  seemed  as  if  she  was  never  going 
to  stop. 

She  would  not  let  his  father  say  anything 
to  him,  but  after  a  while  she  washed  him, 
and  when  she  got  him  clean  she  made  him 
up  a  bed  on  the  lounge  and  put  him  to  sleep 
there  where  she  could  see  him.  She  said 
she  was  not  going  to  sleep  herself  that  night, 
but  just  stay  up  and  realize  that  they  had 
got  Pony  safe  again. 

One  thing  she  did  ask  him,  and  that  was : 
"  What  in  the  world  made  you  want  to  sleep 
in  the  barn,  Pony?"  and  Pony  was  ashamed 
219 


The  Flight  of  Pony   Baker 

to  say  he  was  getting  read}7  to  run  off.  He 
began : 

"Jim  Leonard — "  and  his  mother  broke 
out: 

"I  knew  it  was  some  of  Jim  Leonard's 
work!"  and  she  talked  against  Jim  Leonard 
until  Pony  fell  asleep,  and  said  Pony  should 
never  speak  to  him  again. 

She  and  Pony's  father  sat  up  all  night  talk 
ing,  and  about  daybreak  he  recollected  that 
he  had  left  the  candle  burning  in  the  barn, 
and  he  ran  out  with  all  his  might  to  get  it  be 
fore  it  set  the  barn  on  fire.  But  it  had  burn 
ed  out  without  catching  anything,  and  he 
was  coming  back  to  the  house  when  he  met 
Jim  Leonard  sneaking  towards  the  barn 
door.  He  pounced  on  him,  and  caught  him 
by  the  collar,  and  he  said  as  savagely 
as  he  could  :  "  What  are  you  doing  here, 
Jim?" 

Jim  Leonard  was  too  scared  to  speak,  and 
Pony's  father  hauled  him  to  the  house  door, 
and  holloed  in  to  Pony's  mother:  "I've  got 
Jim  Leonard  here,  Lucy";  and  she  holloed 
back: 

220 


How  Jim  Leonard  Backed  Out 

"Oh,  well,  take  him  away,  and  don't  let 
me  see  the  dreadful  boy!"  and  Pony's  father 
said: 

"  I'll  take  him  home  to  his  mother,  and  see 
what  she  has  to  say  to  him." 

All  the  way  down  to  the  river-bank  he  did 
not  say  a  word  to  Jim  Leonard,  but  when 
they  got  to  Jim  Leonard's  mother's  house, 
there  she  was  with  her  pipe  in  her  mouth 
coming  out  to  get  chips  to  kindle  the  fire 
with,  and  she  said: 

"I'd  like  to  know  what  you've  got  my 
boy  by  the  collar  for,  Mr.  Baker?" 

Pony's  father  said:  "I  don't  know  my 
self;  I'll  let  him  tell  you.  Pony  was  hid  in 
the  barn  last  night,  and  I  just  now  caught 
Jim  prowling  around  on  the  outside.  I 
should  like  to  hear  what  he  wanted." 

Jim  Leonard  did  not  say  anything.  His 
mother  gave  him  one  look,  and  then  she  went 
into  the  house  and  came  out  with  a  table- 
knife  in  her  hand. 

She  said,  "I  reckon  I  can  get  him  to  tell 
you,"  and  she  went  to  a  pear-tree  that  there 
was  before  her  house  and  cut  a  long  sucker 
221 


The  flight  of  Pony  Bake* 

from  the  foot  of  it.     She  came  up  to  Jim 
and  then  she  said:  "Tell!" 

She  did  not  have  to  say  it  twice,  and  in 
about  half  a  second  he  told  how  Pony  had 
intended  to  run  off  and  how  he  put  him  up  to 
it,  and  everything.  Pony 's  father  did  not  wait 
to  see  what  Jim  Leonard's  mother  did  to  Jim. 

When  Pony  woke  in  the  morning  he  heard 
his  mother  saying:  "I  could  almost  think 
he  had  bewitched  the  child." 

His  father  said :  "  It  really  seems  like  a 
case  of  mesmeric  influence." 

Pony  was  sick  for  about  a  week  after  that. 
When  he  got  better  his  father  had  a  very 
solemn  talk  with  him,  and  asked  why  he  ever 
dreamed  of  running  away  from  his  home, 
where  they  all  loved  him  so.  Pony  could 
not  tell.  All  the  things  that  he  used  to  be  so 
mad  about  were  like  nothing  to  him  now,  and 
he  was  ashamed  of  them.  His  father  did  not 
try  hard  to  make  him  tell.  He  explained  to 
him  what  a  miserable  boy  he  would  have 
been  if  he  had  really  got  away,  and  said  he 
hoped  his  night's  experience  in  the  barn 
would  be  a  lesson  to  him. 
222 


Mow  Jim  Leonard  Backed  Out 

That  was  what  it  turned  out  to  be.  But  it 
seemed  to  be  a  lesson  to  his  father  and  moth 
er,  too.  They  let  him  do  more  things,  and 
his  mother  did  not  baby  him  so  much  before 
the  boys.  He  thought  she  was  trying  to  be 
a  better  mother  to  him,  and,  perhaps,  she 
did  not  baby  him  so  much  because  now  he 
had  a  little  brother  for  her  to  baby  instead, 
that  was  born  about  a  week  after  Pony  tried 
to  run  off. 


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